Nepal is a holy country. The faith in the religion of the people here is immense. Although a secular state, the country is dominated by Hindus in the percentage of followers. The mythological places mentioned in the holy books of our religion is now located to be the particular parts of our country. Locations supporting the different events in the mythology still into existence compels us to question ourselves that the stories in the holy books like Ramayana and Mahabharata are just mythology or the actual history? Some then places in those epics are now in India and Nepal. One of those is Dhanushdham. Dhanusadham is the religious temple in Dhanusa district of Nepal. The municipality is named after the temple. Dhanusdham municipality lies in the Dhanusha district of Province number 2 of Nepal. Dhanusadham is 215 km from Kathmandu and it is 18 km from Janakpur. We can visit Dhanushdham by bike, car, bus and so other vehicles. The journey is facilitated by the concrete roads connecting Janakpur and Dhanusadham.
The history of this religiously important temple holds way back in time. The origin of Dhanusadham can be traced in the Satya Yuga. In, the holy books like Ramayana and Bishnupurana, the credit of origin is indirectly given to Lord Rama. According to Bishnupurana, Lord Shiva had made the bow using the body bones of the saint named Maharshi Dadhichi. The bow was made to kill the demon Tripurasur. Tripurasura is a trio of the three demon brothers namley, Tarakaksha, Vidyunmãli and Kamalaksha. They were the son of asura(evil) Tarakasura. The performed Tapasyaa standing on one leg for hundreds of years. They lived on air for thousands of years.
Afterwards, they continued the tapasya using their head to stand upside down for more thousands of years. Seeing this extremely tough practise and high level of dedication, Brahma was highly impressed and gifted the boon to them. The boon read as, three forts will be made up of Gold, silver and iron each. The forts will ruled by the three different brothers . Tarakaksha got the golden fort made in sky, kamalaksha got silver and the later on got the iron fort. The boon was not over here. Once in every thousand years all of these merges and the one to destroy the merged Tripura( the combined forts) with a single bow can kill them. But the gods were against this. They went to Brahma and Shiva but returned hopeless. They then approach Lord Bishnu.
The demons had not done anything wrong and nothing was the problem. But the Lord Bishnu plans in a different way. Out of his powers, Lord creates a man with bald head, faded clothes and carried a wooden pot for water. He directs man to teach them the evil values which are against the Vedas which will eventually lead them to wrong direction and themselves generate the reason to get killed. The man with his disciples followed the guidance of the Lord and the asuras followed the man’s teachings. As a result they started to disobey the norms. They carried out a lot of sins. They even stopped worshipping the Shivalinga. Now the lord was compelled to kill them. And lord shiva invaded the fort when the fort was merged and destroyed it with that special bow made up of bones and the powerful arrow, Pasupatastra and the demons were dead.
The same bow was a kind of test for the Syambar of Goddess Sita. When lord Rama broke the bow, it was shattered into parts and fell on the different parts of the world. One of the parts of the then Yuga, is believed to have fallen on Dhanushadham. The temple was created around the area and kept sacred. Every year Makar Sankrati is celebrated with unlimited joy in the Dhanushadham temple. The pilgrims and local devotees offer their prayers to the temple. Dhanushdham enhances our faith against the evil. It connects us to our mythology. Leaving the question, is our mythology, the history of mankind?
-Article written by: Suyash Dhakal for Land Nepal
