Budhanath Temple, Bhagalpur

Bhagalpur, on the banks of the Ganga in eastern Bihar, is historically identified with ancient Champa (Champanagari), capital of the Anga Mahajanapada – one of the sixteen great kingdoms (mahajanapadas) of early India, and, in the Mahabharata, the kingdom given to Karna by Duryodhana. That deep historical layer survives today mainly in place-name and cultural memory, and most of the areas of Bhagalpur associated with it – including the Champanagar locality itself – are today far better known for a separate, later religious geography: Champanagar/Champapuri is one of the most important Tirtha sites of Jainism, held to be the birthplace of Vasupujya, the twelfth Tirthankara, with its own major Digambar Jain temple complex; Champanagar’s old quarters also hold a distinct Hindu shrine, the Mansa Mandir, tied to the medieval Bengali legend of Chandradhar Saudagar’s worship of the goddess Mansa (Bishari), a tradition unconnected to the Anga-kingdom or Karna history.

Within the wider city, the most substantial and best-documented ancient Hindu temple is the Budhanath Temple (also called Vriddheshwarnath or Baba Bal Vridheshwarnath), a Shiva shrine on the bank of the Uttarvahini Ganga in the Adampur/Jogsar locality. Devotional tradition holds its Shivalinga to be Swayambhu (self-manifested) and credits the sage Vashishtha with its consecration in a bygone yuga; it is counted among the “108 Nath” temples of India named in the Shiva Purana. The temple complex also shrines Durga, Radha-Krishna, Hanuman, Parvati, and Nandi, and draws over a million pilgrims during the month of Shravan for Rudrabhishek and Jalabhishek rituals along the Ganga ghats, besides anchoring an annual Kanwar Yatra to Baba Basukinath Dham. Its own Wikipedia article frames it in general terms as a living landmark of Bhagalpur/Anga’s ancient heritage, though no source consulted ties its specific founding legend to Karna or to any named Anga-era ruler – that broader Anga/Karna history belongs to the city and region as a whole, not to a documented legend of this particular temple’s origin. This is a separate site from the already-documented Ajgaibinath Temple in nearby Sultanganj, and from the Jain and Mansa-Devi sites of the Champanagar locality proper.