Indreshwar

While the great sage Gautam was absent, Indra, the king of the gods, assuming the sage's very guise, deceitfully undermined the chastity of the devoted wife Ahalya. When the great sage Gautam returned to his hut after bathing, he was enraged beyond measure at this despicable deceit of Indra.

The great sage Gautam cursed Ahalya to become stone, and to Indra, who had been overcome with lust and had ravished another's wife, he gave a terrible curse: "Let a thousand yonis break out all over your body."

When those loathsome marks of the yoni appeared all over his body, Indra, the king of the gods, was deeply ashamed and fled, abandoning heaven. For the atonement of the curse, on the advice of his guru Brihaspati, Indra and his wife Shachi went to the confluence of the Lilavati and Rudravati rivers at Panauti.

There they offered severe worship and penance to Lord Shiva. After a thousand years of faithful penance, Lord Shiva appeared and completely released Indra from his curse. All those marks on his body turned into eyes (netra), and for that reason Indra was called 'Sahasraksha' (the one with a thousand eyes).

That historic Shiva linga, which Indra installed and worshipped to be freed from the curse, was called 'Indreshwar Mahadev' (Panauti), and the place where Shachi performed penance was named 'Shachitirtha'.