Ghushma's lake
Near a mountain in the southern region called Deva lives Sudharma, a learned brahmin of the Bharadvaja line, devoted to the Vedic path, the sacrificial fires and the worship of Shiva. His wife Sudeha is as devoted as he is. They have no son.
Sudharma accepts it; Sudeha does not, and she keeps pressing him. Under that pressure he offers two flowers into the sacrificial fire and has her choose between them — one would mean a son. She picks the other, and Sudharma takes it as fate. Sudeha then proposes that he marry again. He refuses at first. She brings her younger sister, Ghushma. Sudharma warns that Sudeha may come to resent a son born to her sister; Sudeha says she could never be jealous of her own sister. Sudharma marries Ghushma and asks Sudeha to look after her.
Ghushma's devotion takes a particular form. Every day, with her sister's consent, she makes a hundred and one images of Shiva out of earth, worships them, and throws them into a lake nearby. Over time the count reaches a hundred thousand. By Shiva's grace she bears a son, beautiful and fortunate, and Sudharma is delighted.
Sudeha's jealousy grows with the boy. He is married, and the household honours Ghushma more. Ghushma tells her sister that the son and his wife are hers as well, and the daughter-in-law treats Sudeha as a mother-in-law, but Sudeha decides that only Ghushma's tears will cool the fire in her heart. One night, while the young man sleeps beside his wife, Sudeha cuts him to pieces, carries the pieces to the lake where Ghushma throws her clay images, and goes back to bed.
In the morning the daughter-in-law finds the bloodied bed and laments; Sudeha pretends to grieve. Ghushma finishes her worship without visible agitation. Shiva gave the child, she reasons, and Shiva will protect him; worrying will change nothing. She carries the day's images to the lake — and on the way back sees her son standing on the bank. He says his mother's virtue and Shiva's grace have brought him back to life.
Shiva then appears in a form of radiant light and offers to kill Sudeha with his trident. Ghushma asks him to protect her sister instead: sin falls away, she says, at the very sight of one who helps those who harm them. Pleased, Shiva offers a second boon. Ghushma asks him to remain there, in her name, for the protection of the worlds. Shiva agrees to stay as the linga Ghushmesha, names the lake Shivalaya, and promises blessings on Ghushma's family for a hundred and one generations. Sudharma, Ghushma and Sudeha walk round the linga a hundred and one times; Sudeha, ashamed, performs expiation and asks forgiveness.
The story accounts for the linga's name, Ghushmeshvara, and for the Shivalaya tank beside the temple. The translator's notes identify Mount Deva with Devagiri, modern Daulatabad, and place the Shivalaya lake near Devagiri in Aurangabad district.
Where this account comes from
- Purana: Shiva Purana, Kotirudra Samhita 32.1–52 (J. L. Shastri trans., 1950) wisdomlib.org
- Purana: Shiva Purana, Kotirudra Samhita 33.1–56 (J. L. Shastri trans., 1950) wisdomlib.org