A shloka of the Rig Veda (4.58.3) describes Agni, the god of fire, with four horns for the four Vedas, three legs for past, present and future, seven hands for the seven colours of fire, two heads for the two kinds of fire, domestic and sacrificial, and a triple bond for the three lokas.
In a small cave at the Pateshwar Shiva temple there is a sculpture of exactly this Agni, as Agni Vrishabha, the Bull of Agni: three legs, two of a man and one of a bull; two heads, one human and one bull; seven hands and four horns. It is one of its kind in the country.
The temple is more than 1,500 years old, famous for thousands of Shiva lingams and unusual sculptures of gods not seen in other temples. It sits on a high hill in semi-dense forest, and survived because it was so isolated.
