Shri Mankameshwar Temple, Agra

Shri Mankameshwar Temple in Agra traces its own founding to the age before ours, when Shiva left Mount Kailash for Gokul to see the newborn Krishna, stopping to meditate on this ground beneath what is now a courtyard banyan tree. Before continuing south he is said to have made a vow tied to whether the infant would let a wandering, ash-covered stranger hold him. The guide follows that origin story down to the sanctum steps, where eleven lamps burn on clarified butter below ground level.