Temples of Death

Published on 3rd April, 2016, in Mumbai Mirror. The city of Ujjain with 84 shrines dedicated to the destroyer, ultimately venerates the unending cycle of life and the immortality of the soul. Typically, deities in Hindu temples face the rising sun. However, in Ujjain, the presiding deity, Shiva, known locally as Mahakaleshwar, faces south, which in Hindu mythosphere is the direction associated with death. There flows the river Vaitarni, beyond which is located Pitr-loka, the land of the ancestors. Shiva looks at them and offers hope of another life, for he is the lord of time, Mahakal, and the conqueror of death, Mrityunjaya. In Hinduism, ..