Mandar Parvat

Mandara Parvat (Hill) is located about 48 km to the south of Bhagalpur city in Bihar. Mandara is a nearly 750 feet tall granite hill, and according to a mythological text, Bhagalpur was the place where Samudra Manthan took place, and the Devatas and the Asuras churned the ocean of milk using Mount Mandara to obtain Elixir. The Serpent King Vasuki is said to have offered himself to be used as a rope to churn the ocean of milk, and the faint impressions of a coil on the Mandara hill stand as a proof of this story. One of the Purana says that Lord Vishnu Defeated the demon Madhu and placed the hill which is now known as Mandara, over him. The conch shell, Panchajanya, which marked the start of the war of Mahabharata is believed to have been obtained from the Shankha Kunda. Kalidasa refers to Vishnu’s foot marks on Mount Mandara in his epic Kumarasambhava. The Hill happens to have numerous sculptures of Hindu Gods cut into its Rocks. A belief among the Jains depicts that the 12th Tirthankara, Vasupujya attained Nirvana at the peak of the same hill.