Supriya in the rakshasas' prison
Darukavana is a fertile forest on the shore of the western ocean, sixteen yojanas across in every direction. It belongs to the rakshasa Daruka and his wife, an ogress also called Daruka, who has been made arrogant by a boon from Parvati; the goddess has put her in charge of the forest. The pair and their rakshasas wreck sacrifices and rites and terrorise the people, who go to the sage Aurva for protection. Aurva pronounces a curse: whenever the rakshasas kill people, the rakshasas themselves will die.
When the gods under Indra come to fight, the rakshasas find that they are dying and the gods are not. The ogress remembers Parvati's boon and proposes a way out. The rakshasas carry their belongings to a city in the ocean. Fearing Aurva's curse, they keep off the land and work the waters instead: they seize travellers, imprison them in the city, and kill some.
One day several boats full of people arrive, and the rakshasas bind the passengers and lock them up. Among the prisoners is Supriya, a Vaishya and a devout Shaiva who wears ash and rudraksha and will not eat without first worshipping Shiva. He keeps up his worship in prison, and teaches the others the five-syllabled mantra Namah Shivaya and how to make lingas out of earth. The prisoners worship in their different ways — in meditation, in the mind, with earthen lingas — and six months pass.
A rakshasa guard sees a form of Shiva in the prison and reports it to Daruka. Daruka demands to know what the Vaishya is meditating on. The Vaishya says he does not know, and Daruka orders him killed. As the rakshasas close in, the Vaishya calls on Shiva by name. Shiva emerges from a crevice in the ground together with a temple with four doors, gives the Vaishya the Pashupata weapon, and slays the rakshasas with all their attendants.
The ogress then praises Parvati and begs her to protect her race. Parvati agrees, and Shiva, bound by her earlier boon, tells her to do as she wishes. Parvati makes the ogress ruler of the remaining rakshasas and lets their women bear sons in the forest. Shiva agrees to stay in the forest to protect his devotees. The Jyotirlinga there comes to be known as Nageshvara, and the goddess as Nageshvari.
The episode gives the Jyotirlinga its name and its setting, a forest on the western sea. The Devbhumi Dwarka district administration identifies the area around the temple as Darukavana and describes the linga as housed in an underground sanctum.
Told differently elsewhere. This account does not agree with “The sages of Darukavana and the falling linga”, given on this page too. We tell each as its own tradition tells it, and do not choose between them.
Where this account comes from
- Purana: Shiva Purana, Kotirudra Samhita 29.1–53 (J. L. Shastri trans., 1950) wisdomlib.org
- Purana: Shiva Purana, Kotirudra Samhita 30.1–32 (J. L. Shastri trans., 1950) wisdomlib.org
- Government: District Administration, Devbhumi Dwarka, Nageshwar Temple tourist-place page devbhumidwarka.nic.in · seen 2026-10-09