Baidyanath jyotirlinga temple also known as Baidyanath Dham, is one of the twelve jyotirlingas in India and is considerd to be one of the most sacred abodes of lord shiva. It is situated in Deoghar district of Jharkhand .

History

It is one of the oldest and and one of most worshipped temple in India. Although the name of the builder of this temple is not traceable till now but certain parts of the front portion of this temple are said to have been built by Sri Puran Mal ,an ancestor of the Maharaja of Giddhour , in 1596. This temple has been famous since the rule of the last Gupta Emperor, Adityasen Gupta in the 8th century AD. There are 21 other temples along with the main temple of Baba Baidyanath in the main complex .Some of the shrines are of Maa Parvati, Ganesha, Bramha, Kaalbhairav, Hanuman ,Maa Sarswati, Lord Ram with Lakshman and Maa Janki, Maa Ganga ,Lakshmi-Narayan etc. [ref]

The main temple has a pyramidal tower with three golds vessals set compactly. These were gifted by the Maharaja of Giddhour, Raja Puran Singh. There are also five knives in a trident shape (Panchshula) as well as a lotus jewel with eight petals called Chandrakanta Mani. A huge sculpture of Nandi is also there.[ref]

Story behind Baidyanath Jyotirlinga

It is said that the demon king Ravana prayed to lord Shiva seeking boons that would make him omnipotent. As a sacrifice he offered each of his ten heads one after another. This pleased Shiva who came down to earth and cured the injured Ravana. The actof curing made lord Shiva equivalent to a baidhya (doctor). Thus we called him as Baidyanath. Ravana, one of the gratest devotees of the lord Shiva, requested him to take Lanka. However the lord Shiva put a condition and said to him that if Ravana were to stop anywhere on the way in any condition and put that shivlinga anywhere down then it would get fixed permanently on that spot. Ravana accepted this conditon. However, other gods objected as if Ravana were to get the shivlinga in Lanka , he would turn invincible and would be able to wreck havoc in the world. As Ravana was transporting it to Lanka, the devtas reached to Varuna devta and requested him to do something to break his journey. Varuna entered in the stomach of Ravana, making the demon king want to relieve himself. He descended to the ground and handed the shivlinga to a Brahmin (lord Vishnu in disguise) and asked him to hold it. As soon as Ravana went to relieve himself , brahmin kept that Shivlinga on the ground and disappeared. When Ravana returned ,he realized that he had been tricked. The linga was fixed to the ground. He tried with all his might to displace it. However, he could not. So he paid obeisance to it right there. This spot is believed to be Deoghar.[ref]