According to a legend, Ravana, the king of Lanka and an ardent devotee of Shiva, wanted to take Shiva away from Kailasa (the god’s abode in the Himalayas) to Lanka. Shiva, impressed by Ravana’s tapasya, gave him a shivling form that Ravana could take to Lanka. But there was a catch: Ravana couldn’t place that shivling on the ground during his journey to Lanka, else Shiva would return to Kailasa. Lord Vishnu, alarmed at Ravana taking Shiva with him, ordered the river Ganga to enter Ravana’s bladder, disguised himself as a cowherd, and with the Ganga inside his bladder, Ravana had a strong urge to urinate, but he couldn’t as he was holding the shivling, which he was not to place on the ground. He saw the cowherd and asked him to hold the shivling as he relieved himself. The Ganga kept flowing out of Ravana’s bladder and the cowherd, tired of waiting, placed the shivling on the ground and disappeared. The place where the shivling stayed is now known as Baidyanath Dham. This naming, too, has a story behind it. Several centuries later, the shivling was discovered by a cowherd named Baiju, most probably a Santhal, as Deoghar is in the Santhal Pargana area. After Baiju, the place came to be known as Baijnath and, alternately, as Shiva was the ultimate medicine-man—Baidyanath.