Devadāruvana
Devadāruvana · deva-dāru-vana, “the forest of devadāru trees”
Devadāruvana, “the forest of devadāru trees”, is the forest of āśramas where the Vālakhilya munis did their long tapas, and where the liṅga of Bhagavān Śiva fell to the earth. The Saro Māhātmya of the Vāmana Purāṇa also calls it the Dāruvana. No one could move the fallen liṅga from this forest, until Śiva himself, in the form of an elephant, carried it to the great lake.
The tapas of the Vālakhilyas
Sanatkumāra told this account to Mārkaṇḍeya Muni, as he had heard it from Brahmā. In his work of creation, Brahmā brought forth the Vālakhilya munis, devoted to tapas and to the study of the Veda. They bathed, worshipped the devatās, fasted and kept vratas, and in the vānaprastha way they kept up their fire rites. For a thousand divine years they dried their bodies with harsh tapas, until only their nāḍīs and sinews were left. Yet Śaṅkara did not become gracious to them.
After a long time Bhagavān Śiva and Devī Pārvatī were passing by the path of the sky, and Pārvatī saw the munis’ dried bodies. She asked Śiva to bless them: “In the Devadāruvana those munis are suffering like this. They are āstikas, steadfast in the dharma of the Vedas, and only bones and skin are left of them. Be compassionate and bless them.”
Śiva answered that, for all their tapas, those munis did not know the subtlety of dharma and had not given up kāma and krodha. He went with Pārvatī to the forest, so that their doings would become clear to her. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22)
The fall of the liṅga
In the Devadāruvana, Parameśvara took the form of a youth, beautiful in every limb, digambara (clothed only by the sky), adorned with a garland of forest flowers and holding a kapāla (skull-bowl) in his hand. In this form he went about the munis’ āśramas for bhikshā (alms). The munis’ wives came with roots and fruits to give him bhikshā and gathered round him, lost in moha (delusion). Śiva took their bhikshā and said, “May good come to you!”
The munis grew furious at what their wives were doing. They struck him with sticks and stones and made his liṅga fall to the ground. As soon as the liṅga fell to the earth, Mahādeva vanished, and with Pārvatī he reached Kailāsa. The whole creation was shaken, and the hearts of the ṛshis were troubled.
The munis went to Brahmā. He told them that Parameśvara stands always within their own bodies, and that however long one dries the body with vratas and fasts, there is no use until the mind is pure. “For the truly wise, the home itself is an āśrama.” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22)
The Vāmana Purāṇa also tells, in Chapter 6, how Bhagavān Śiva came for bhikshā to Dārukāvana, the forest of the ṛshis, where his liṅga fell by their śāpa. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 6)
The liṅga carried to the great lake
Brahmā led the munis to Kailāsa, and there they praised Śiva. Mahādeva told them to take the liṅga they had made fall and install it in the great lake called Sānnihitya, where all the devatās would worship it by the name Sthāṇu. “If one always remembers Sthāṇu, all pāpas are removed. By the mere darśana of that deva, people become pure in body and go to moksha.”
The ṛshis, with Brahmā and the devatās, set about moving the liṅga from the Dāruvana and carrying it. But even all together they could not move it. Brahmā told them that the liṅga had fallen to the earth by the will of the Devadeva, and that only he could bring it.
Śiva did not appear to them again at Kailāsa. At the great lake, Pārvatī Devī gave them amṛta to drink and showed them Śiva, in the form of an elephant, in the middle of the water. At the plea of Brahmā and the devarshis, Śiva took them all with him to the Devadāruvana āśrama. In his elephant form he easily took up the liṅga with his trunk, brought it, and set it on the western side of the great lake, amid the maharshis’ stotras. When the devatās and the Vālakhilya and other ṛshis had praised him, Mahādeva left the elephant form and became present in the middle of that liṅga. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 23)
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 6
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–23