Kathmandu:

To reach Budhanilkanatha it takes you around 30 minutes if you go on a bike and a

bit longer if you are travelling in a micro. And this time we visit the famous temple Budhanilkantha Vishnu Narayan.

Budhanilkantha Vishnu Narayan

This place is obviously popular for its unique stone sculpture of Budhanilkantha Vishnu Narayan as it is believed that if you ask for something with a pure heart then Budhanilkantha Vishnu Narayan will surely fulfil your wishes.

No one has yet been able to pin point the origin of this statue but there are some religious beliefs as to how it was formed. According to Krishna Prasad Dhakal, main priest of the temple, King Surya Ketu was a very religious man and went to visit all the four dhams daily. But the god Badri Narayan realising that due to his devotion he was not giving enough time to the country told the king that he would make a statue where the king could go and do his pujas. So Badri Narayan requested Vishwokarma to complete this task. The statue was created from a single stone in a field and one of the villagers saw it while he was working and so the message was passed on to the king. King Surya Ketu then started visiting the statue regularly but once he doubted the authenticity of it and questioned Badri Narayan about it.

This question outraged the god he cursed king Surya Ketu that if any king visited the temple

his head would break and he would die.

As legend has it later on the statue got covered in the fields again. But then during the Kirant era, one of the villagers was really surprised that the grain he stored was never

finished, the villagers got curious and started digging. It is believed that one of the fingers of the left hand of the statue was

cut off while digging and blood came from there. The person who dug it died after seven days. But the entire statue was recovered after that.

In the Malla era, Pratap Malla decided to construct pillars and put a roof over the statue but these would collapse at night and the priests realised that the statue should

be kept facing the sky so a roof has not been kept over it till date. When the king himself thought about visiting the temple in his dreams he saw snakes telling him to stay away from the place and so he instructed a similar one to be made in Balaju.

You can take your offerings from home or buy them in the small little shops at the venue.