Gorakhnath Temple

The Pashupatinath Monument Zone, also a zone of the UNESCO World Heritage List of Kathmandu Valley, is rich with quite a number of exotic temples, which seldom have equivallence anywhere else, out of the zone. One among such unusual temple one can find there is that of the Guru Gorakhnath.

In the Kathmandu Valley the tradition of worshipping saint Gorakhnath is not as strong as that of Machhindranath worship. There are several major temples of Gorakhnath – at Mrigasthali hills of the Pashupati area, Kasthamandap temple, Pharping, Patan and others, and the incidents of worshipping the Guru is also not very clear. Gorakhnath is being worshipped, more or less, only by the followers of the Nath cults. In the Kathmandu Valley, the clans of Kushle, Darshandhari, Kapali and some others worship him as their prime deity.

There are half a dozen two-storey open rest houses in the periphery. Yogis and other homeless people used to reside there but now all are evacuated.

The over 600-year-old Gorakhnath Temple, facing east, is situated in the cluster of monuments in the middle of Mrigashthali hill, between the temples of Pashupatinath and Guheshwori. One can reach the temple through a lonely stone-paved way joining the two shrines. There are a series of monuments along the way.

The temple is constructed in Shikhara style — in the shape of a charriot or a mountain. It is standing on square shaped plinth. Two stone lions, a bell hung on a stone beam and a brass trident are erected around the temple. There are porches made of stone pillars on its four sides. The doors are made of stones that have Cheppu toranas above them. The temple itself is a combination of red bricks and black stones. It has a towering roof with tiny temples on four sides with stone images of Hindu deities on its first floor. The brick-and-stone temple has a small sanctum with gazebo windows around it. You need to peep through the windows to see what is there inside the temple.

There is a relief of a couple of feet on a round niche inside the small sanctum of the temple, which is often covered with a piece of a yellow cloth. People worship the feet regarding them as those of Saint Gorakhnath. He is considered an intelligent disciple of Rato Machhindranath or Karunamaya, the Buddhist god of compassion and rainfall.

The Machhindranath was believed to be brought from an Indian state in around 7th century. A legend states that the Machhindranath was brought to Nepal so that his student would stand up to greet the Guru and would release the snakes that could bring rainfall in the valley. In that sense, the existence of Gorakhnath must have started in the 7th centrury. At least, the tradition of following the cult of Gorakhnath came to the rise during the reign of King Jasyasthiti Malla, between 1367-1432 AD.

The relation of Gorakhnath and Rato Machhindranath can be seen in the latter’s image at the back of the temple. A marble image of Karunamaya, is established there. In fact, there are several ancient-looking Buddhist images at the hill of Mrigasthali, though many of them are in worn out condition.

However, there is a controversy about the date of origin of this temple. But there is no evidence to relate the temple with the story of arrival of Rato Machhindranath, or to say it is 1300 years old. The temple could have been constructed quite later.

Though there has been a tradition of worshipping Saint Gorakhnath since the 7th century, the temple is said to be built by King Jayasthiti Malla in 1394 AD, according to a chronicle. We do not even know whether the present shape of the temple is the contribution of the king himself of it was later added. What we have as a historic evidence of the temple is that in 1849, a Ganesh Kumari built (or rebuilt) this temple.

The temple is now being run under a private guthi. As the owners of the Guthi show lukewarm response to their social responsibility of carrying out the daily and annual rituals, the temple worshipping is not carrying out satisfactorily.

Similary, the stone temples at the Gorakhnath temple premises are being renovated presently by the Pashupati Area Development Trust. It is quite encouraging that the temples at least had their days after decades. Still, the renovations are going on just against what we have learned in the past several decades on conservation of heritage sites. Cement is openly used to construct the temples. The monuments seem "conserved" for the visitors but it is going to cast a negative impact among the heritage lovers and other locals in the long run.

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