Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga

The story of Grishneshwar: Ghushma’s devotion

According to the Shiva Purana (Kotirudra Samhita, chapters 32–33), near a mountain named Deva in the south (the translator takes it to be Devagiri, that is Daulatabad) lived a brahmin named Sudharma and his wife Sudeha. Grieved at having no child, Sudeha had her husband marry her younger sister Ghushma. Every day Ghushma made 101 earthen lingas, worshipped them and immersed them in a lake; a son was born to her.

Out of jealousy Sudeha killed the boy at night and threw him into the lake. Ghushma did not leave her worship, and after it she found her son standing alive by the lake. Shiva appeared and wished to punish Sudeha, but Ghushma begged him to spare her sister and asked him to stay there. Shiva stayed under the name Ghushmesha, and the lake came to be called Shivalaya; with this the Purana completes its account of the twelve Jyotirlingas.

About the temple

According to Maharashtra Tourism the temple was destroyed in the 13th-14th centuries under the Delhi Sultanate; in the 16th century Maloji Bhosale, grandfather of Chhatrapati Shivaji, had it rebuilt, and its present form comes from Ahilyabai Holkar’s restoration in the 18th century. The temple is of red volcanic stone in the Hemadpanti style, with a five-tiered spire and a hall of 24 pillars; male devotees enter the sanctum bare-chested. It is a monument protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

We did not find the temple trust’s own website (several private sites call themselves official), and no state government page gives darshan hours, so none are given here.

How to reach Grishneshwar

• Airport: Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad), about 36–40 km (Maharashtra Tourism).
• Rail: Aurangabad railway station, about 29 km; by road about 31 km from Aurangabad (Maharashtra Tourism Jyotirlinga leaflet).

Main festivals

Where the sources differ

• Another story: the Government of India’s Incredible India site tells a different tale (a devotee named Kusuma, a linga under a tamarind tree, and a king named Bhosale cured of leprosy in the Shivalaya lake), which does not match the Shiva Purana. We found no second source for the same page’s claim of a 6th-century Rashtrakuta origin.
• The name: Ghushmesha/Ghushmeshvara in the Shiva Purana; texts of the stotra also read घृष्णेशं and घृसृणेशं besides घुश्मेशं; government sources spell it both Ghrishneshwar and Grishneshwar.

Frequently asked questions