History of Ameshwarnath Mahadev
Regarding “Baba Budhwa Mahadev”, people believe that this Shivalinga is “SWAMBHU” which was first identified by “Ambrikh Rishi”, son of “Vyas Rishi”. Where this Shiva Linga was ? It was a very dense forest. Rishi Ambrikh made this place his penance, and it became famous by the name “Ambikot”. This forest was situated on a mound which was also called Ambikot mound. This forest was very rich and many predatory animals like tigers, lions, elephants and many other animals lived in it. This place is situated along the northern bank of “Maa Ganga”.
It is situated in Ambika forest, 3 miles from Karamanasa river, south-west of Chausa. This place is situated south-west of Ramrekha Ghat of Buxar. It is mentioned in Sir “Alexander Cunningham”’s book (1814 – 1893) on pages 81 to 95. This ancient forest was known as Ambi forest.
It is also believed that the Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsang had mentioned Shiv Ling about Baba Budhwa Mahadev during his visit to India in 629-645 AD. People started living in Ambi Van and gradually this place came to be known as the villages of Bharauli, Amaon, Sohaon. When India was a slave, the British started calling Ambi Van as Amayak Van in their colloquial language and gradually everyone started calling this forest Amayak Van. Gradually, people started living here, and this place came to be called Amao village.
It is also believed that a beam of light used to come out from the Shivalinga in the Amayak forest and then people came to know that there is a Shivalinga here and people started having faith here and people started calling this Shivalinga by the name of Budhwa Mahadev, This Shiv Linga is called Budhwa Mahadev because this Shiv Linga is very ancient.. The temple of Budhwa Mahadev Ji was built by the efforts of Shri Prayag Sahu, a resident of the village Bharauli. Some people, according to their own opinion, used to call this Budhwa Mahadev Amkeshwarnath Mahadev, Amaveshwaram Ameshwarnath Mahadev etc.