The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s5.145

c7.s5.145

A tradition exists that the temple at Nirmal near Bassein was erected to commemorate the death there of the great Shankaráchárya, the chief teacher of the Shaivite worship in the eighth or ninth century. But he is known to have died in Kashmir, and as there were twenty-seven of his spiritual descendants who assumed his name, and who are calculated to have lasted for about 650 years, it is probable that some one of these was the person in whose honour the original temple was built.¹ The present building dates only from the time of the Peshwás, having been built by one Náro Shankar, probably the same mentioned by Grant Duff.²