जीमूतकेतु

{ jīmūtaketu }

Puranic Encyclopaedia

See under Jīmūtavāhana.
JĪMŪTAKETU I   A synonym of Śiva. There is a story in the Purāṇas about how Śiva got the name Jīmūtaketu. When summer season began Pārvatī told her husband Śiva: “My Lord, Summer has set in. What are we to do without a house to protect us from the hot sun and the strong wind?” Śiva replied. “Dear! It is because I have no house that I walk about in the forest always.” Because Śiva said so, the loyal wife Satīdevī spent the summer with her husband in the shade of trees. When the summer was over rainy season began. People stopped walking about. The sky became black with clouds. The roaring sound of thunder was heard everywhere. Seeing that the rainy season had begun Pārvatī again request her husband to erect a house. Hearing her request Śiva replied. “I have no wealth at all to build a house. You see that I am wearing the hide of a leopard. The serpent Śeṣa is my Brāhma-string. Padma and Piṅgala are my ear-rings. One of my bracelets for the upper arm is Kambala and the other one is the nāga (serpent) Dhanañjaya. My bracelet on the right hand is Aśvatara and on the left hand is Takṣaka. The string that I wear round my waist is Nīla, as black as antimony. So let us go above the clouds and spend the rainy season there. Then rain will not fall on your body.” Saying thus, Śiva got into a lofty cloud with Pārvatī and sat there. That cloud looked like the flag of Śiva. Thenceforward Śiva came to be known by the name Jīmūtaketu. [Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter] .

A Sanskrit English Dictionary

जीमूत—केतु  m.  m. शिव, [VāmP. i]

ROOTS:

जीमूत केतु

N. of a विद्या-धर prince, [Kathās. xxii, 17]
of the ancestor of a dynasty, Inscr. A.D.1095.