Travel Diaries- Solapur (1)

Recently, I went to Solapur for 3 days during Makar Sankranti as my mom stays there. This festival is celebrated with great pomp in this city.

On the first day, I got to see the wedding between kumbhar kanya and Yog danda. There’s a beautiful story behind this marriage-

Once upon a time, there lived a king and a queen in the city of Solapur. They were kind and old but they did not have kids. So the queen prayed to God finally her wish was granted. She gave birth to a lovely baby and named him Siddheshwar. But soon they realized that he couldn't speak. The queen and the king were worried for him.

When he was about 10 years old, a sage had come outside their house saying ‘Malleya, malleya’ (Malleshwar is one of the names of Lord Shiva). So the prince came outside and to everyone’s delight he could speak. Siddheshwar asked the sage what he wanted. The sage replied, ‘I need food’. Then the prince went in to get food. By the time he returned, the sage had disappeared. The prince tried to search him. After walking a few miles, he found a group of sages. He asked them if they knew Malleya to which one of them replied ‘Yes, come with us. We will take you to Malleya’. So the prince happily followed them. They walked miles and miles away for about a month. One day, they reached their destination and the sage pointing towards the (Shiv) Linga said, ‘’Dear prince, that’s your Malleya ‘’.

Looking at the Linga, the prince got so disappointed that he went to commit suicide by jumping off a nearby hill. When he was about to jump, Malleya (Lord Shiva) appeared in front of him and stopped him. Malleya explained him that he had a greater purpose to live for. He said, ‘’ Siddheswar, you have to build 68 Lingas around this city ‘’. The prince happily started the assigned work. He spent his entire life building 68 Lingas at various places in the city [out of which 16 are in the Siddheswar temple and the last 4 Lingas are built in Mallikarjun (one of the names of Lord Shiva) temple].

It took us about 3 to 3 and a half hours to cover all the spots where the Lingas have been built.

Part 2-https://wrytin.com/ashwita/travel-diaries-solapur-2-jr0mio2y

Part3-
https://wrytin.com/ashwita/travel-diaries-solapur-3-jr0mqb0l