Mahakaleshwar, Ujjain

01Mahakal of Avantika

The Shiva Purana tells of the demon Dushana, who tormented the Brahmins of Avantika until Shiva burst from the earth with a roar and burnt him to ash; at the devotees’ prayer he stayed as Mahakal. South is the direction of Yama, so a south-facing linga is the Lord who stands over death itself. Kalidasa, a poet of this city, sends his cloud-messenger in the Meghaduta to see the evening worship at Mahakal’s shrine, with its dancing women and drums. Ujjain is also where the Surya Siddhanta’s prime meridian runs; for Indian astronomers the city was the zero line of longitude.

02Iltutmish and the Shinde rebuilding

Under the Paramaras the temple grew large. In 1234–35 Sultan Iltutmish of Delhi raided Malwa, took Ujjain and destroyed the temple of Mahakal; Minhaj-us-Siraj, the court chronicler, records it in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri and says the image was carried to Delhi. For five centuries worship carried on in reduced form. When the Marathas took Malwa in the 1730s, Ranoji Shinde’s diwan Ramachandra Baba Shenvi built the present five-storeyed temple, with Mahakal below, Omkareshwar above him and Nagchandreshwar at the top, whose shrine opens only on Nag Panchami. The Mahakal Lok corridor was opened in October 2022.

03Bhasma aarti and Simhastha

The bhasma aarti begins around 4 a.m. Mahadev is bathed, dressed and then covered in sacred ash while the priests chant and the drums go on; women in the hall cover their heads during the ash offering. Every twelve years, when Brihaspati enters Simha, the Simhastha Kumbh is held on the Shipra at Ram Ghat. The next falls in 2028. Harsiddhi Mata, a Shakti Peetha, and the Kal Bhairav temple, where the offering is liquor, are both a short walk away.

The life of this place