MO Abode of GodŽ
They stand holding a lamp In one hand, whole night outside the
temple.
Baijnath is also famous because of the legend of Shiva's,
marriage. There is a group of temples at the site. The temples-
have pretty carved stones, designs and figures.
The legend of Gomati
There is an interesting legend about the birth of Gomati. In1
the good old days, there was a man called Atma Ram. His
wife was called Dhundhali Bai. She was very beautiful but
unfortunately she was unhappy because she was childless. Her
husband Atma Ram performed several penances praying for the
fertility of his wife. God appeared in the shape of a Sadhu and
gave him a fruit which he gave to his wife. Dhundhali was told
by some people that childbirth would spoil her beauty; there-
fore, fearing this, she gave the fruit to the cow for delivering a
child; she managed to get the son of her sister for herself who*
was named DhundhkarL In the meantime the cow gave birtb
to a human child with the ears of a cow. Dhundhali brought,
him home and he was named Gokarna and both grew together
but with the passage of time Dhundhakari grew into a cruel
person and Gokarna into a God fearing person. Dhundhakari
drove away his parents and fell prey to a life of vice and
ultimately he was murdered by one of his mistresses. Since no-
one had performed his last rites, therefore, he turned into a bhoot.
Gokarna meditated at Badhangari for the deliverance of his
brother and his parents. God ultimately became happy and not
paily liberated Dhundhakari but made a river flow from the place
where Gokarna meditated and was named Gokarnawati which
is now named Gomati.
A journey to the valley
T I undertook the first journey into this part of the Uttarakhand
jn 1949. I accompanied my father on this trip to Bageshwar
from Almora. At that time, the bus used to go only upto Some*
shwar. The motor journey was also perilous because the road-
was narrow. From Someshwar, Bageshwar was nearly 23 km,
pnfoot. My father hired a pony for me but I walked almost
tjie entire distance on foot becausel did not like the idea of a.