My visit to the 12 Jyotirlings
- Anuradha Shankar
- 3 days ago
- 11 min read
This story begins in 1988, well before I even had a clue that a simple trip would turn out to be the first stop in a journey that took 37 years to complete. This is the story of my visit to the 12 temples to Lord Shiva that we know of as the Jyotirlings. I have only written about a few of these 12 temples, but having finally completed the entire circuit at my own pace, in my own way, I felt it was time to share this story here.
Let me begin with a short introduction to the 12 Jyotirling temples. There are a number of stories about why these particular 12 shrines are considered Jyotirlings, the most popular one being linked to the name ‘Jyotirling’ – that these are temples where Lord Shiva appeared as a pillar of light, or Jyoti. Lord Shiva has many forms, both benevolent as well as destructive. But we worship Him as the lingam – the shivling –which enables us to see Him in everything, even a stone with no shape or particular form. Seeing Shiva as a light is an extension of the same idea, an even more aniconic idea, with no form or shape or size.
Did Shiva truly appear as a pillar of light at all these temples? I have absolutely no clue. It is quite probable that multiple people could have envisioned Him as a pillar of light, at multiple places at multiple points in time. What we do know is this – that in most of the sanctums of these 12 temples, the lingam is a Swayambhu – not carved by human hands, but found as is. However, these are not the only temples with Swayambhu lingams. We also do know that these are among the most ancient of Shiva temples in India. But that can be said about other Shiva temples in the country as well, which are not part of this circuit. So, why then do we count these 12 temples as Jyotirlings and no others? The answer to this question comes from Adi Shankaracharya, who, in his Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram, names 12 temples as the Jyotirlings. The sloka is as follows…
सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्रीशैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।उज्जयिन्यां महाकालं_ॐकारममलेश्वरम् ॥१॥
परल्यां वैद्यनाथं च डाकिन्यां भीमाशंकरम् ।सेतुबंधे तु रामेशं नागेशं दारुकावने ॥२॥
वाराणस्यां तु विश्वेशं त्र्यंबकं गौतमीतटे ।हिमालये तु केदारं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ॥३॥
एतानि ज्योतिर्लिङ्गानि सायं प्रातः पठेन्नरः ।सप्तजन्मकृतं पापं स्मरणेन विनश्यति ॥४॥
Saurastre Somanatham Ca Shrishaile Mallikarjunam |
Ujjayinyaam Mahakalam-Omkaaram-Amaleshvaram ||1||
Paralyam Vaidyanatham Ca Dakinyam Bhimashankaram |
Setubandhe Tu Ramesham Nagesham Darukavane ||2||
Varanasyam Tu Vishvesham Tryambakam Gautami-tatte |
Himaalaye Tu Kedaaram Ghushmesham Ca Shivaalaye ||3||
Etaani Jyotirlingani Sayam Pratah Patthen-Narah |
Sapta-Janma-Krtam Papam Smarannena Vinashyati ||4||
The meaning of this sloka is…
At Saurashtra is Somanatha; at Srishaila, Mallikarjuna; At Ujjayini is Mahakala and Omkara, Amaleshwara; At Parali is Vaidyanatha and at Dakini is Bhimashakara, at Sethubanda is Ramesha, and at Darukavana is Nagesha; At Varanasi is Vishwesha, Tryambakam is on the banks of the Gautami River, in the Himalayas is Kedaram, and in Shivalaya is Gushmesham. Those who meditate on these (12) Jyotirlingas, in the mornings and evenings, will just by this remembrance, destroy the sins committed during their seven births.
Shankara gives no reason for singling out these 12 temples. He simply identifies these 12 temples which he visits during his extensive travels, and marks them out as something extremely special. What is very interesting to me, is that he doesn’t say one has to visit these 12 temples. He says we have to remember them, and meditate on them.
Travel today is of course so much easier than in Shankara’s time, and today these 12 temples are popular pilgrimage sites, lots of people visiting all the 12 one after the other, as a temple circuit. I have heard people even tell me that they visited all these temples in the order they are mentioned in, even though it isn’t a very convenient journey to do so. My journey to these temples did not follow any order. Most of the trips were planned with ideas other than visiting Jyotirlings. Only the last few were conscious visits, once we realized I had visited most of them anyway….
My connection to the Jyotirlings began in 1988 on a visit to Kashi or Varanasi. My uncle was posted at the brand-new airport, and we took the opportunity to make a trip to the holiest of cities in India. The sloka very clearly identifies Vishwanatha of Varanasi as the Jyotirling, and I have written of this temple here.
The next Jyotirling I visited was a couple of years later, in 1990 – Kedarnath. The sloka mentions Kedaram in the Himalayas, and this trip was with my mother and grandfather, and a group of friends from the Sarojini Nagar Vinayaka Temple in Delhi. That was one of the very few group trips I have ever been on, and it was a memorable one. I have written about that trip on the blog… check it out here. The memory of that visit to Kedarnath is still so strong, that I have absolutely no desire to visit again, especially considering all that I have heard and read about the yatra today.
The third Jyotirling I visited was Rameshwaram, in the mid-90s. I have forgotten the year, but that was another wonderful trip, with my youngest uncle and his family. This trip was also the first time that I visited the Madurai Meenakshi Temple. I had no idea then that I would come back to these temples again and again and again. I have lost count of the number of times I have visited Rameshwaram and Madurai since my marriage, because our Kula Deivam (family deity) temple is nearby. I have written about Rameshwaram here. I find it intriguing how Shankara identifies the sites of the Jyortirlings. While for Vishwanath he gives the name of the city, for Kedar, it is its location in the Himalayas which is important. Similarly, for Rameshwaram, it is the bridge built to Lanka that identifies the site for Shankara. He calls Him the Lord of Rama, who resides at the place where the bridge was built. It is a very interesting thought which raises the question of what exactly was visible when Shankara visited Rameshwaram in the 8th century. Did a temple already exist, and where exactly was it? Was it at the site the temple stands today, or at Dhanushkodi, which is technically where the bridge was built from?
Sometime in 2005, we made a trip to Srisailam. Srisailam is again one of the few temples which Shankara mentions very clearly, giving both, the name of the place and the Lord - Mallikarjuna. That was again a very memorable trip with my in-laws, when we drove from Hyderabad to Tirupati, visiting Srisailam, Ahobilam and Mahanandi along the way. I visited Srisailam and Ahobilam again in 2025, this time taking my mother along, since she hadn’t visited these places. It was only then that I realized that I haven’t written about either of these temples. That will be rectified very soon.
I visited Triambakeshwar near Nashik for the first time in 2007 (I think). That was another family trip, and we visited multiple temples. I visited Triambakeshwar again, multiple times over the years, but somehow never got around to writing about it. Again, I find it interesting that Shankara identifies Triambakeshwar from the river flowing nearby – the river Gautami, whom we call the Godavari.
In 2009, we visited two Jyotirlings together – Omkareshwar and Mahakaleshwar. This trip was with my in-laws, and this trip yielded me my first published article – In the Land of the Om, in the Deccan Herald. I wrote multiple posts on Omkareshwar (I was so fascinated by the place) as well as the rest of the trip… Here are the relevant links
in 2012, I visited Somnath for the first time (I visited it again twice later). I did write about that experience, as a guest post for a website, but unfortunately, the link to that post is no longer available.
That same year, we also visited Bhimashankar. I wonder why Shankara puts Bhimashankar in such a broad area… he simply says it is located in the Deccan. It is, and surprisingly, since there are no other temples with the same name, there is absolutely no doubt about this temple. Read about this temple here.
Around the same time, I also visited Grishneshwar, on a trip to Aurangabad, when we visited Ajanta and Ellora. While the temple of Grishneshwar is separate from the caves at Ellora, I wonder if that was always the case, because Shankara says that the temple of Gushmesham is in the Shivalaya, or the temple to Shiva. Now, the name Gushmesham, is believed to be a corruption, coming from the word ‘Krishna’ (as in Krishneshwar, the Lord of Krishna), which is the name of the Rashtrakuta king who built the gorgeous Kailasha Cave at Ellora. The Kailasha cave is a marvel, one that has to be seen to be believed. If there is one temple to Lord Shiva that completely stands out from the rest, it is this one. Isn’t it more reasonable to think that it is this stunning temple that Shankara talks about when he says that Gushmesham is in the Shivalaya? Honestly, that is what I would like to believe. However, it isn’t so simple. Whether the Kailasa Cave existed then, is debatable, since we don’t really know when Shankara lived, which could have been any time between the 5th to 8th centuries. The Kailasa Cave was built sometime in the second half of the 8th century. I have written about my visit to Grishneshwar here. I have yet to write about Ellora, but I hope to do that soon.
In 2012, we also visited 2 more temples in Maharashtra, which might or might not be the ones mentioned in the sloka. One is Parali Vaidyanath, and the other is Aundha Nagnath. We visited both these temples on a trip to Nanded.
There are many claimants to the title of the Nageshwar Jyotirling. The Aundha Nagnath temple is one, and so is Nageshwar near Dwaraka. Then there is Jageshwar in Uttarakhand, which is also considered to be the original Nageshwar. The reason for this confusion lies in Shankara’s identification of this temple as located in Daruka Van – a forest of Deodhar trees. This word Daruka has been interpreted in multiple ways, and the name Nagnath or Nageshwar is common enough to add to the confusion. I have visited all the three, and here are some thoughts – the Nageshwar temple at Dwaraka is completely unimpressive, compared to the other two. The temples at both, Jageshwar and Aundha are gorgeous. The Jageshwar temples are situated in a dense grove of Deodhar trees, so the temples are literally in a forest of Deodhar, or Daruka Van. Read about them here. While Aundha today has no trace of the trees, the temple and the shiva lingam are very impressive. Read about it here.
There is also confusion regarding the original temple of Vaidyanath. Shankara says the temple is located at Parali, which doesn’t clarify anything. There is a Parali Vaidyanath in Maharashtra, close to Nanded, near Ambejogai, and this is a simple temple, with the current structure a rather recent one, but made of wood and very beautiful. The more popular choice is Baidyanath Dham at Deoghar in Jharkhand, which is an extremely crowded and chaotic temple. The third, lesser-known option for this Jyotirling is the Baijnath Temple located in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. This is quite an ancient temple, located on the banks of a river, and has some gorgeous sculptures. Only Baidyanath Dham features on most of the regular lists of Jyotirlings, though I am more partial towards the other two.
I had visited most of the Jyotirlings by 2012 or 2013. But there was a sense of incompleteness, since I had yet to visit Baidyanath in Jharkhand. Somehow that trip refused to happen, even though we tried multiple times. Meanwhile, some of these temples called out to me, and I visited them multiple times. In the last couple of years, I decided to take my mother to see those she hadn’t, so we made trips to fill her gaps. And then, last year, on a sudden whim, we decided to do a short trip, just to Deoghar and back – Shankar, my mother, and me. So finally, in May 2025, we visited Baidyanath in Deoghar, and completed the circuit which had begun decades back. I have yet to write about Baidyanath, but I have written about the temples of Maluti in Jharkhand, which we visited, here.
Maybe this is how it was meant to be. I began this circuit with my mother, way back in 1988, and I completed it with her and my husband, in 2025. While the actual number of shrines are 12, I visited 16 in all, including the ones which are claimants to the title. When I think of the Jyotirlings today, as Shankara asks us to, I think of the 12 that are closest to my heart, the 12 that I believe are the ones he meant, that he probably visited.
To wind up this rather long story, let me add that, no matter which 12 you count, this circuit takes you around the country. It shows you different facets of our nation, and highlights its diversity.
At Kedar, I remember doing parikrama around the temple, ankle deep in snow. At Aundha Nagnath, I did the parikrama under the hot sun, barely conscious of the hot stones beneath my feet – so entranced was I by the sculptures placed on the temple walls! At Rameswaram, we bathed in the sea and walked to the temple, bathing in the 22 wells inside the temple complex before seeing the Lord; at Kedar, it was so cold, we skipped a bath to see the Nirmalya darshan. At Srisailam, we woke at the unearthly hour of dawn to line up to see the lingam as it is, without the decoration; at Mahakaleshwar, we did the same thing, to see the Bhasma aarti. At Kashi, we spent more time on the banks of the river, than in the temple. At Ellora, I stood in front of the lingam, wondering if he was the same one that Shankara saw; at Somnath, I was far more entranced and impressed by the temple and the lingam consecrated by Ahilyabai Holkar.
These temples also mark Shankara’s journey. While his journey may have begun at Kalady, his birthplace in Kerala, his journey with Advaita began at Omkareshwar, where he met his guru, Govinda Bhagavatpada. A cave marks the spot on the island where this historic meeting occurred. Shankara also installed the spatika (crystal) lingam at Rameshwaram (according to legend). Interestingly, he also installed a spatika lingam at Joshimath, on the route to Kedarnath, which is one of the mutts that he set up. And he is said to have disappeared at Kedarnath. Between meeting his guru and writing a whole lot of spiritual treatises on philosophy and composing songs, he also managed to traverse the length and breadth of our extensive country, at least twice, to visit and connect these temples.
This is probably what Shankara intended, to map India, in a way, through these sacred sites. All these sites were in active worship when Shankara visited. He simply connected them, creating a sacred geography, which united different ideas and thoughts into one, centered around Shiva.
Om Namah Shivaya
P.S. I am sharing this post more than a year after my journey to all the Jyotirlings was completed. It was a difficult post to write, not only because it has taken so long to complete this pilgrimage, and I have forgotten lots of details over these years. It has also been difficult, because I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about writing about this journey. This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for months now. Every few weeks I have added and removed bits and portions, not quite sure what I wanted to share, and what I wanted to keep to myself.
I have finally decided to share this today, because, I now have a new website, and the blog has taken on a new avatar, and I wanted something special to commemorate this special event. Hope you all like the new look, and this (long) post as well! Please do leave your thoughts behind as comments.
Very well written manni, few of your musings really caught my attention and made me think <3