Arpuda Devi

Situated amidst lush greenery a hillock in Mt.Abu houses Adhbutha Devi (Arpuda devi), in a cave. One has to crawl on all fours to get inside the cave to see and seek her blessings.
It is believed that this temple is 5,500 years old.
Once upon a time there was a king by name Bashkali. He was a great devotee of Shiva and he had obtained the boon of immortality after years of penance from the lord.
He soon entered heaven and drove away the devas. The devas arrived at the shrine of Adhbutha devi and prayed to her. The goddess pleased with their devotion appeared before them and asked them what they wanted.
Indra told her that they wanted her to kill Bashkali and give their kingdom back to them. The goddess said that since Bashkali had the boon of immortality it would be difficult to kill him. But she assured them that she would drive Bashkali out of heaven.
She sent an emissary to Bashkali to vacate heaven.
Bashkali, however was proud that he was immortal and so he sent his troops to fight with the goddess.
The goddess on seeing Bashkali and his troops laughed loudly and several soldiers erupted from her mouth and vanquished Bashkali’s troops. Initially Bashkali was flustered when all his men died, but then the thought of being immortal gave him strength to fight with the goddess. The devas however told the goddess that unless she vanquished Bashkali they could not go back to their kingdom.
The goddess then took her full form and removed a huge rock nearby and pressed Bashkali’s head with it. Pressing him into the earth the goddess resided on the rock by which Bashkali was unable to get out from under the rock. Knowing that Bashkali would never be able to come out, the devas thanked the Goddess and left for heaven.

To reach the temple of Adhbutha devi one has to climb 350 steps, some are steep. Yours truly climbed the 350 steps and felt that it was truly an “adhbut” feat. I do consider that my crawling on all fours to get inside the cave was a miracle. The spouse however stood outside wondering if I would be able to get inside the cave and his eyes popped out when I did.
Hail Adhbutha devi.