India, Feb. 15 -- The temple celebrating a river's love story predates the empire.

On the windy, rocky Hemakuta Hill, a leafless tree holds court before a tiny one-roomed shrine beside a green spring-fed pond.

This is Moola Virupaksha, a 7th-century structure that marks the spot, the story goes, where Shiva tried to come to terms with the loss of his beloved Sati. Her body had been cut to shreds, but his memories of her remained, and so he meditated.

In time, his beloved was reborn as Pampa (another name for the river Tungabhadra). As she sought him, Manmatha, the god of love, fired his arrow to help matters along. Shiva's meditation was broken. In anger, he opened his third eye (virupa aksha; Sanskrit for eye without form) and did the...