On an elevated stretch of pious ground in the village of Goshal, a collage of woodwork, stone, and slate mesh together to unveil a Himalayan temple built with the Kath Kuni style of architecture, a common sight in villages dotting the scenic hills of Himachal.
Traditionally made out of natural materials such as timber and stones, the Kath Kuni, is considered by the local populace to be a highly efficient building technique with thought and consideration embedded in the blueprint. A complete building is conceived to be everything from a seismic structure, a natural thermal storage, to a fitting example of modern-day sustainable architecture. Its origin remains unexplored, but the style very likely sprouted because of geographically available resources and harsh cold weather.
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Like the architecture, the origin of the temple, too, remains obscure. However, what is presently known is that the temple, for some time now, has been dedicated to the trinity of two venerable sages from Vedic mythology and a serpent deity.
Namely, Gautam Maharishi (a learned sage, who turned his wife into stone, after her supposedly adulterous affair with the king of Gods, Indra), Ved Vyasa (the author of the Mahabharata) and Kana Naga – one of the many sons of Vaskui (the mythic lord of snakes coiled around Shiva’s neck) begot in marriage with a local girl of the very village of Goshal.
This Serpent deity earned the honorific ‘Kana Naga’ after losing an eye in an accidental fire started by his grandmother (see Farbound.Net story: Behind the myth of the serpent people).
In local folklore, the original temple was built after a man out tilling his farm long ago stumbled upon a holy relic and had a heavenly voice reveal its identity as the embodiment of the Trinity.
Born dumb, the encounter blessed him with the power of speech.
