long ago, in the dense forests of d?kini, on the lofty ranges of the sahy?dr's lived the evil asura by the name bh?m? with his mother karkati. compassion and kindness shivered in the presence of bh?m?. the divine and the mortals were scared of him alike. but he was confronted by certain questions about his own existence which continuously tormented him. when bh?m? could no longer sustain his agony and curiosity, he asked his mother to unveil the mysteries of his life. he urged his mother to tell him who his father was and why he had abandoned them in the wilderness of the forest. after much hesitation and with a lingering fear karkati, his mother revealed to him that he was the son of the mighty kumbhakarna, the younger brother of the lank?dh'shwar, the mighty all powerful king r?vana of lanka. lord vishnu in his incarnation as lord r?ma annihilated kumbhakarna. karkati told bh?m?, that her husband and his father was killed by r?m in the great war. this infuriated bh?m? and he vowed to take revenge against lord vishnu. to achieve this, he embarked on a severe penance to please lord brahma. the compassionate creator was pleased by the dedicated devotee and granted him immense powers. this was a terrible mistake by brahma. the evil tyrant caused havoc in all the three worlds. he defeated king indra and conquered the heavens. he also defeated a staunch devotee of lord shiva - k?maroopeshwar and put him in the dungeons. he started torturing rishies and sadhus. all this angered the gods. all the devas, along with lord brahma, beseeched lord shiva to come to their rescue. lord shiva consoled the gods and agreed to rescue them from the tyrant. on the other hand, bh?m? insists and orders k?maroopeshwar to worship him instead of lord shiva. when k?maroopeshwar did not do that and refused to do pooja to him, the tyrant bh?m? raised his sword to strike the shiva linga, to which k?maroopeshwar was doing abhishekam and pooja. as soon as bh?m? managed to raise his sword, lord shiva appeared before him in all his magnificence. then a terrible war began. then, the holy sage narada appeared and requested lord shiva to put an end to this war. it was then that lord shiva reduced the evil demon to ashes and thus concluded the saga of tyranny. all the gods and the holy sages present there requested lord shiva to make this place his abode. lord shiva thus manifested himself in the form of the bh?m'shankar jyotirlingam.
