In Hindu mythology, lord Shiva is the destroyer, the lord of all five elements, the ascetic God who meditates on a deer skin. He also wears a garland made of human heads (Mund Mala). Legend has it that Parvathi (Shiva’s wife) asked him why he wears the garland of heads. To this he replied that every time Parvathi dies, a head gets added to the garland and hence it continues to grow. Parvathi then wanted to know the secret of his immortality.

Shiva was reluctant to divulge the secret of his immortality to Parvathi, but he had to give in to the incessant pressure exerted by his wife. Therefore they set out to a secluded place where Shiva could divulge the secret of immortality or the Amar Katha to Parvathi.

It is believed that Shiva first left behind Nandi (Bull), his vehicle at Pahalgam, hence the name (Bail-Gaon). It is therefore believed that one must walk from Pahalgam onwards as the lord started his yatra here.

At chandanwadi he left the moon behind (Shiva caries the moon in his hair). Once again, this place takes its name from this legend.

At Seshnag Shiva left behind the snakes. He left his son Ganesh at the place which is now called as Mahagunas parbat or Ganesh Top.  And at panchtarani, he left behind the five elements-air, water, fire, sky and earth of which all life is made of (Shiva is the lord of these elements or Panchabootham as they are called).

And finally after reaching the cave he opened his third eye and directed a huge ball of fire which destroyed all living things in the vicinity of the cave. Then he instructed parvathi to listen carefully as he narrated the Amar Katha. He also instructed her to make some sound regularly to let him know that she is listening (This was because during the narration he would go in a trance and convert into what is believed to be the ice lingam which is worshiped today).

Then Shiva started the narration and assumed the form of atma linga ( A Shiva linga in which Shiva himself is present). From here onwards there are two parallel legends about Amarnath.

One legend says that when Shiva created the ball of fire, it destroyed all living things around Amarnath, but left a egg untouched as it was hidden beneath the deer skin on which Shiva was sitting.

From this egg a pair of pigeons hatched, who listened to the Amar Katha and became immortal. Even to this day one can see a pair of pigeons in Amarnath.

The other legend says that a parrot hatched from egg and heard the Amar Katha. While Shiva was narrating the Amar Katha, Parvathi happened to fall asleep and it was actually the parrot which was making the noises. Therefore Shiva was under the impression that Parvathi was listening to the story.

However when he finished narration, he realised that parvathi was actually asleep and it was the parrot which had listened to the story. This infuriated Shiva, who sent his trident to kill the parrot. To escape the trident, it is believed that the parrot entered a lady, who was wife of a sage and started to grow inside her womb.

However since it had already listened to the Amar Katha, it did not want to be born in a world full of Maya (illusion). Therefore even after the baby was due, it did not come out and the sage’s wife was in great distress. The sage then prayed to Brahma, who told the sage the reason why the baby was not coming out. He also advised the sage to approach Vishnu, the Lord of Maya, to temporarily rid the world of Maya so that the baby would come out. Accordingly the sage approached Vishnu and Vishnu removed Maya from the world temporarily. The baby which was born was called Shuka (Shuka in Sanskrit means parrot) and he grew up to become a famous sage.

After this incident, Shiva ordained that anybody who listened to the Amar Katha or who visits the Amarnath cave will attain moksha (Freedom from the cycle of birth and death).