01Found by a cowherd
The temple’s katha tells of a man named Basuki who, digging for roots in the forest during a famine, struck a stone that bled milk. That night Shiva told him in a dream that the stone was his linga and should be worshipped. The shrine took the finder’s name, and Basuki, the serpent king around Shiva’s neck, is honoured in the name too. Around the main temple stand some thirty smaller shrines, among them a temple of Parvati facing Shiva’s, and at the evening aarti the two are tied together with a sacred thread.
02The Shravani walk
Kanwariyas who carry Ganga water from Sultanganj to Deoghar in Shravan keep some of it, or fetch more, for Basukinath, for the pilgrimage is held to be incomplete without both. Through the month the road between Deoghar and Basukinath is a river of saffron, and the temple stays open almost round the clock.
About 45 km from Deoghar on the Dumka road; Shravan and Mahashivaratri are the peak days.
