#Thread The Budhanilkantha temple is home to a 1400 years old statue of Prabhu Vishnu in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a unique temple to Vishnu, a one of its kind, something unlike what we had seen earlier. The unique Sleeping Vishnu statue of the Budhanilkantha

Temple has many myths and legends associated with its origin, which add to the Budhanilkantha temple mystery. There is a very interesting story about how the Statue of Vishnu was discovered. Legend has it that a farmer and his wife were ploughing their land when the

plough struck something hard. It turned out that what the plough had hit was the idol of Vishnu. Miraculously the field started to turn red from the blood flowing from the idol. The idol was then placed in its current position. Another legend has it that the Vishnu statue was

sculpted elsewhere and then transferred to Kathmandu sometime in the 7th century during the reign of one of the last emperors of the Gupta dynasty, Vishnu Gupta. One of the special features of Budhanilkantha reclining Vishnu Statue is that it is believed to be

floating on water, though this has not been proven as scientific studies cannot be undertaken because of religious reasons. However, a chip of the statue which had come off was found to be very rich in silica. The Budhanilkantha literally means, “Old Blue Throat”, the

“Blue Throat”, refers to Deva Shiva, however, the idol is of Deva Vishnu. It is believed that once during the 17th century, Pratap Malla who was the ninth king of Kantipur had a vision according to which any king of Nepal visiting the Budhanilkantha temple would die.

It is believed that owing to this vision no king of Nepal has ever visited the Budhanilkantha temple ever since. The sleeping image of Vishnu is beautifully sculpted from a single block of black basalt rock. It has four hands which hold the Shankha, Chakra, Gadha,

and a gem, in typical Hindu iconography. Source: @sandynvyjay