The Kal Bhairav Temple situated in Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh, India is dedicated to Kal Bhairav, the guardian deity of the city is one of the most unique temple of India.
Kal Bhairava which is a representation of the Hindu Lord Shiva often recognized with a fiery expression and a coiled snake around the neck and one such temple is Located on the banks of the Shipra River, Ujjain and it is one of the most active temples in the city, visited by hundreds of devotees daily.
India which the home of almost 2 million temples holds many peculiar stories and rituals. And one such temple is the Kal Bhairav temple, the interesting ritual of this temple will shock you.
Here, the devotees offer liquor to the deity as chadhava’ and it is also given away as ‘prasad’ to the visitors of the temple. The liquor is offered to the Lord Shiva as one the five tantric ritual offerings known as panchamakara: madya (alcohol), maans (meat), meena (fish), mudra(gesture) and maithuna(sexual intercourse).
It is said that in Hindu scriptures, Shiva is described to be someone who enjoys his meat and his alcohol. He is smeared with ashes from the dead and is considered the destroyer while Vishnu is the creator.
Hence, Shiva is worshipped differently from the other Gods. It is also believed that the liquor offered is only special to Lord Bhairava and shouldn’t be offered to any other Hindu God. In older times all the five offerings were made to the deity, but now only alcohol is offered and the other four offerings are in form of symbolic rituals.
There are vendors outside the temple who sells puja basket containing flowers, coconut and a quarter of liquor. The devotees visits the temple with the basket and offer it to deity though the priest. The priest there, pours the alcohol into the plate and keeps it near the mouth of the shivalinga, he then tilts the plate a bit, and the liquor starts disappearing. The priest returns the rest of the bottle to the devotees as prasad.
Some devotees doubt that the deity’s lip which have a slit, have cavity between it. But the temple priests, as well as several devotees, claim that the slit doesn’t have any cavity, and that the deity miraculously swallows the liquor offered to him. However, the temple priest does not allow the visitors to examine the statue.