Budhanilkantha – Mysterious Stone Sculpture of Floating Vishnu

There is a unique Hindu Temple in Nepal, It is the Buhdanilkantha Hindu Temple, where the floating statue of Lord Vishu is worshipped, and has an interesting legend too. Mahadev once saved the existence of the world by drinking the accumulated poison of the entire universe named Halahala that came out from samudra manthan or churning of the cosmic ocean, and hence he is known as Nilakantha. But here Maha Vishnu himself is known as the Budha (old), nil (blue), kantha (throat). The reason behind such naming is as mysterious as his stone statue is. This huge stone statue statue floats in the water pool. It never sinks. This unique feature of the thousand years old statue has made scientists think.

The Statue of Mahavishnu at Budhanilkantha Temple

Location

This Temple and statue are found on the northeast end of the City of Kathmandu. The Lord Vishnu statue measures 5 meters tall, and was carved out of only one basalt stone. This statue is on reclining position on Shesha Naga, his well known serpent. This temple is very different from most temples others Hindu Temple. 

First,this Buhdanilkantha Hindu Temple, also known also as the Narayanthan Temple and is among one of the largest Hindu temples in the world, but unlike other temples, this temple has no walls, none at all, it is an open air temple! Another unique feature is the floating statue on a pool of water! This pool measures 13 meters. 

The Deity

The name Budhanilkantha, has nothing to do with Buddha, literally the word means, ‘Old Blue Throat’. Another interesting fact, is that Buddhists also come to worship this statue, side by side with the Hindu devotees.The statue of Lord Vishnu is peacefully sleeping and is adorned with flowers, the coils of Shesha too. At times birds also come and stand on the coils of Shesha the cosmic serpent. The statue wears a crown, overlapping another crown, but made of silver. The statue has on each of its four arms the Sudarshana Chakra, a gada, a Conch Shell and a kundala.

History

One of the other two legends tell us, that during the time of King Vishnu Gupta, of Kathmandu Valley, during the 7th Century the statue was carved and taken to its present location. Another legend tell us while a couple, a farmer and his wife, were working on their field, suddenly, and without any explanation, blood started oozing out of the ground, surprised, the farmer and his wife had found the lost statue of Lord Vishnu as Budhanilkantha. This statue was then taken, and placed where it is visited now, by Buddhists, Hindus and other Sanatani believers.

Tourists as well as devotees come from all over the world, to visit this unique open air temple. Even though so many visit this temple the Nepali royalty, stopped visiting, this happened after King Pratap Malla, had a dream, or perhaps a nightmare. King Pratap Malla saw in his dream, that if any royalty would come for a visit to this Bushanilkantha or Narayanthan Temple, they would die, frightened, since then no royal ever visited again.

Unsolved mystery

There are three different legends, about this floating statue. One is that the statue floats on the water, even though due to being carved out of heavy stone, this could not be possible. There have been attempts to verify if the statue indeed floats or not. This kind of study are no permitted, but in 1957, a small piece of the rock was determined to be of low density, silica based rock, similar to a volcanic porous rock. The mystery still remains today, without furthers tests, not allowed this will never be know, does it, or does it not floats? If yes, then how?

Festivals

Every year. between October or November, during the Hindu month Kartika, this temple celebrates the awaking of the god Vishnu, after his long sleep. This is the celebration, Haribondhini Ekadashi Mela, or the waking up of Lord Vishnu.