The centuries old Neelkanth temple in Rishikesh preserves in itself the celestial aura and the spiritual ambience within itself. It is enriched with legendry anecdotes and mythological stories. The name Neelkanth has been assigned to Lord Shiva and the story behind the name goes as follows.
The Puranas state that during the churning of the ocean- Samundra Manthan, there came out a poison. The venom was extremely poisonous that it could exterminate mankind. Gods were distraught and didn't know how to destroy it. Lord Shiva took a precarious step of drinking the venom to save his devotees. He drank the poison but did not swallow it. He allowed it to remain in his throat which turned his throat blue. Neel defines the color blue, Kanth means throat & Mahadev means Lord of the Gods.It is said that this is the place where Lord Shiva drank the poison.
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