Why Lord Shiva is called ‘Neelkantha’?

Lord Shiva is the supreme God among five important deities of Hindu religion. He is therefore also termed as ‘Mahadev’. People address him by hundreds of names and ‘Neelkanth’ is one of them.

According to the religious scriptures, during churning of the milky ocean, the poison or ‘Halahal’ also came out of the ocean which terrified the Gods and Demons. It was so toxic that it might have destroyed all of creation. Lord Shiva then came to rescue and swallowed the poison and held it in his throat. Lord Shiva therefore became ‘Neelkanth’. The swallowing of poison could have burn the throat but keeping the Moon and the Ganges in the lock of hair soothed Lord Shiva.