India is the headquarters of the gods, there are roughly 330 million gods to chose from. Every god has at least one thousand and eight different names that describe the many different avatars of the God head. So the ocean of stories rises and falls with each telling and with each telling a story is embellished or acted out or otherwise infused with the essence of everyone who tells it. Stories only need to contain elements of the truth here in India and never need to be bolstered with scientific fact. Stories illustrate the greater truth behind the action.
One of the ways these stories evolved was with the absorption of local gods into the Ayran pantheon as they swept through the northern plains. A local god from the Kumaon region has become the Bholenath version of Shiva in his guise as a wandering mendicant.
Bhole means fools or otherwise implies people who live on the fringes of society such as witches and goblins, ghosts and ghouls as well as freaks and fools. Nath means lord so this is Shiva as Lord of the Fools. It’s in this guise that he arrived at his wedding with the Parvatti and caused a huge scandal.
The local story of Bholanath as he known here goes like this, the elder son of a local King took to evil ways and was exiled by his father. The younger son ruled as Gyan Chand for many years until Bholanath returned in disguise. When palace spies informed the King of his brothers return, he had him killed. From that day the ghost of Bholanath and his wife Bharini began to stalk the valley. Eventually in order to propitiate the god of the ghosts and ghouls, witches and fools and his wife, eight temples were erected in Almora devoted to Bholanath.
A small iron trident is visible in most houses here in Kumaon as a sign of Bholanath.