There is an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is a temple in Bongabar, a village in Mandu block in the Ramgarh district of Jharkhand, known as Tuti Jharna Mandir (टूटी झरना मंदिर). As per the Bengali calendar, today is the first Monday of the Shravan month. The Mondays of Shravan month are believed to be auspicious. Judhajit and I decided to visit the temple today. This place is around 50 km from Ranchi and around 8 km from Ramgarh.

This temple is situated off the Ramgarh-Sandi Road. A single, narrow, meandering metalled road from Sandi goes up to the temple complex through villages and fields.

There is a very ancient and wondrous temple of Lord Shankar in Ramgarh, Jharkhand. The speciality of this temple is that in this temple, Lord Shiva is worshipped by Goddess Ganga. It is believed that Goddess Ganga herself pour water on the Shivalinga. And the most interesting thing is the water, runs down the Shivalinga, for twenty-four hours, seven days a week, and three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

The special thing is that this stream falls directly on Shiva. This is the reason why people say that here Goddess Ganga performs the jalabhishek of Lord Shiva. Where is the original source of the water stream? No one has been able to find the source till today.

The History

The discovery of this temple dates back to 1925 when the British were working on laying the railway line between Barkakana and Gomoh and hit upon the dome of the temple while digging. The Britishers were surprised and to know more about the dome, they instructed the workmen to completely dig the ground.

After digging out completely, the Britishers found it to be a temple with a Shivalinga installed. But they were more surprised to see an Idol of Goddess Ganga, right above the Shivalinga from where water was coming out continuously. The water was running down the navel of the Goddess and was falling on the Shivalinga through both her hands as if the idol of the Goddess was pouring the water on the Shivalinga. I don’t take pictures inside the garbhagriha of a temple. I am posting this image from internet.

Surprisingly, the water still flows through the idol of Goddess Ganga and has never stopped for once since then. The two hand-pumps found within the temple complex are also filled with mystery. Water from both the hand-pumps flows automatically, without any break.

The kids from village come to the hand-pumps for their bath. They play at the pumps too.

To more surprise, a river flows just beside the temple, which gets dried during the summer season, but the water in the temple never dries up. To date, no one has been able to track down the source of water in the temple.

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Thousands of devotees visit the temple each year. Due to restrictions because of COVID-19, there was no rush at the temple. It was totally empty. It was around 4.15 PM when we reached the temple; the gate of the temple was closed. We were told that the temple opens around 5 PM.

After some time, we found the Mandir priest coming on his bike. On our asking, he gladly opened the temple and guided us to the garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum), where the Goddess Ganga is pouring water on the Shivalinga. We had to go down several steps, around 5 feet below the ground level to reach the garbhagriha. We were taken aback as the water was pouring continuously as a stream on the Shivalinga from the idol of Goddess Ganga above the Shivalinga. This stream is flowing for centuries and the water here never stops falling.

We sat there for prayers and japa. The tranquility of the place makes you sit there and feel your inner self. According to the local legends, in every particle of this temple, Shiva has merged with Mother Parvati. After coming here, there is hardly anyone who does not feel the feeling inside.

I, later on, discussed this phenomenon with one of my relatives, Mrs. Trina Ghosh Dasgupta, who teaches Geography in senior schools in West Bengal. She said that it could be an Artesian well, well from which water flows under natural pressure without pumping. Judhajit and I googled a lot to understand artesian wells and we now think that these naturally flowing waters are flowing artesian wells.