Parad Shivling at Harihar Ashram

Inside a Kankhal ashram, behind a gate most people pass without a glance, stands a Shivling (an aniconic form of Shiva) of roughly 150 kilograms of solidified mercury, or parad. It is a rarity out of the tantric-alchemical tradition, first worshipped at the Kumbh Mela of 1986. Beside it grows an old rudraksha tree whose beads devotees value, and a Maha Mrityunjay shrine shares the compound. Small, quiet and genuinely unusual, ten minutes from Daksheswara Mahadev, so it fits neatly into a Kankhal circuit. Free entry, shoes off.

A 150-kilo mercury Shivling under an old rudraksha tree, in a courtyard that stays empty