01Found in the river
In 1940 a washerman was beating clothes on a stone in the Shivna when he found the stone was carved. It was dug out: a linga of glossy dark stone, more than two metres high, with four faces in an upper row and four below, each with its own expression and headdress, the eight forms of Shiva. For two decades it lay on the bank under worship. The present temple was raised over it, and the linga was consecrated there in 1961.
02Dashapura
Mandsaur was Dashapura, a city of the Aulikaras, and its inscriptions are some of the most important of the Gupta age: the silk weavers’ Sun temple record of 437 CE and the pillars of Yashodharman, who defeated the Huna king Mihirakula. Kalidasa mentions the women of Dashapura in the Meghaduta. The linga is placed by art historians in the 5th–6th century, and the people of Mandsaur call their temple the Pashupatinath of India, beside the one in Kathmandu.
The life of this place
- 1940The eight-faced linga is found in the Shivna.
- 1961The linga is consecrated in the new temple.
The temple is on the Shivna bank in Mandsaur town, about 2 km from the railway station; the Kartik fair is held on the riverbank.
