History of Koteshwar Shiv Temple, near Narayana Sarovar, Kutch, Gujarat
Koteshwar Shiva Temple is located in small village Koteshwar, near Narayana Sarovar in Kutch district, the last outpost of western India’s mainland and facing of Arabian Sea. This is very ancient Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva and legends goes to Treta Yuga, Ramayana time with demon king Ravana. Ravan performed rigors penance of Lord Shiva and received boon in fom of Amarlinga, with which Ravan could attain immortality. The only condition was, Ravan had to bring this Linga having extra ordinary spiritual power to Lanka without touching it to ground.
All the Gods were scared that if Ravana reached Lanka then he could destroy everything and no one would able to stop or kill him. Thus Gods tricked Ravana into dropping the Amarlinga and when he tried to bring it up, it turned into thousands of identical Linga. So Ravan was not able to identify the original one and picked up other linga and bring it to Lanka. It is believed that the original Linga was remained at Kutch and around which Koteshwar temple was built.
It is believed that the original temple which was built ages ago had been destroyed; the modern temple has been renovated expertly by the local kutchi artists making it a visual delight in 1820 by Jetha Shivji and Seth Sundarji. Koteshwar temple is alos known as Kotilingeshwar temple. Koteshwar means the ten million Gods, as per the story Amarlinga divided in ten million identical part thus this is famous as Koteshwar. It is also said that from the temple, the lights from Karachi in Pakistan can be viewed in a clear night. As this temple is sea facing, it creates the beautiful sunset point.
Koteshwar Shiva Mandir is must visit place during the Kutch visit and especially during the Kutch Rannotsav. Lots of devotee and tourist visits here in Shravan month and on Maha Shivratri.
