Gupteswar Cave
temple in India
Gupteswar Cave is a cave shrine dedicated to Shiva, one of the key gods in Hinduism. It is a pilgrim site situated about 55 km (34 mi) away Jeypore, Koraput District in the state of Odisha, India. It is a limestone cave, and its main attraction is the gigantic Shiva Linga which is said to be increasing in size. It is believed that the cave was discovered by Rama and re-discovered in the reign of Maharajah Veer Vikram Dev. In the holy month of Shravan, the cave is visited by devotees who walk to the shrine bare-footed with decorated bamboo palanquins called "Kanwadiya" and bathe in the maha kund before worshipping Lord Gupteshwar. There are 200 steps to reach to the Shiva linga temple. Its entrance is about 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide and 2 metres (6.6 ft) high.
Legend
Surrounded by a dense forest of sal trees and flanked by the Kolab river, a 2 metres (6.6 ft) high lingam stands in the cave. The shrine is called "Gupteswar" which means the "God in hiding" because the lingam remained undiscoverable for a long time. One can reach it by climbing the 200 steps flanked with rows of champak trees.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gupteswar Cave” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.