Doleshwor Mahadev Temple is one of the Sacred Temples of Lord Shiva situated southeast of Bhaktapur at Shipadol near Suryabinayak. It is believed to be the head of Kedarnath situated in Uttarakhanda, India.
The
legends got links with Panch Pandava of Mahabharata. The battle of 18 days Kuruchettra
between 5 Pandhavas and their cousins 100 Kaurabhas brothers is the main plot
of Mahabharata. When
Pandava defeated Kaurava, they sorrowed of loss of many lives and went to the
Himalayas to the Abode of Gods in the mighty Himalayas. They went to the
Kedarnath region to get the forgiveness from Lord Shiva. But Lord Shiva was not
ready to forgive them and turned into a form of Bull to ignore them. Soon they
realized Lord Shiva turned into a Bull and tried to stop Bull by pulling
it's Tail. During that, Head of the Holy Bull separated and they could not find
it and it collapsed underground at Guptakashi.
Later
on, it reappeared into different form of five parts. Torso, part without head, neck and limbs at Kedarnath, Arm (Bahu) at Tungnath, his Face at Rudranath, Stomach and Navel at Madhyamaheshwor
and its Tress (Jata) at Kalpeshwor.
For more than 4,000 years, people were searching the head of the Holy Bull. The Hindu activist Bharat Jangam has been researched and claimed that Doleshwor Mahadev is the head part of Kedarnath. The interesting connection of Kedarnath and Doleshwor, both Shrines have the sculptures of Shiva from 4,000 years ago, stone scripts are in Sanskrit and priest are from India’s Southern States, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Kerela.
Sipadol locality is a well farmed land with sufficient natural water sources and fertile lands. Not only from the pilgrimage perspective, it is very rich on natural beauty as well. From Kathmandu, it takes around 1 and half hour to get to the Doleshwor Temple and 30 minutes from Bhaktapur city.