Kathmandu, Aug 12 - A structure found in the Kathmandu valley is a divine relic that goes back 4,000 years to the time of the epic Mahabharata, says an Indian seer who is in Nepal for a month's rituals dedicated to Hindu god Shiva.

'For 4,000 years, people have been searching for the head of (Hindu deity) Kedarnath who assumed the shape of a bull to avoid the five Pandava brothers, the heroes of the Mahabharata,' says Bhim Shankarling Shivacharya, the 54-year-old head of Kedarpeeth in India's Uttarakhand state who is currently in Nepal.

'While the body of the bull lies in Kedarnath, one of the holiest pilgrim destinations in India, now the head has been discovered in Kathmandu Valley's Bhaktapur city.'

The legend goes back to the fabled battle of Kurukshetra fought between the five Pandava brothers and their cousins, the 100 Kaurava brothers, which is the pivot of the Mahabharata.

The Pandavas won, but sorrowed by the loss of lives, they renounced the kingdom they had wrested back and headed for the heavenly abode of the gods, believed to be atop the mighty Himalayan mountains.

'The brothers had sinned by shedding the blood of their own kin,' the seer said, recounting the tale from his silver throne in Kathmandu's Pashupatinath temple. 'They were asked to worship Kedarnath and get exculpated.'

However, Kedarnath was not ready to expiate their sins and assumed the form of a bull to avoid them. The brothers realised who the bull was and tried to arrest it by pulling its tail. At the mighty wrench, the head got separated from the torso and vanished. The hump-backed structure at Uttarakhand's Kedarnath is worshipped as the torso of the holy bull.

Now the seer of the math says a smaller structure found at the Jangam math in Bhaktapur is the missing head.

As proof, the holy man points out the amazing similarity in the traditions of the monasteries in two different countries.