The four Dhams mark the four directions of the land, and tradition holds that a devotee who reaches all four in one lifetime draws near to moksha. They are Badrinath in the northern Himalayas, Dwarka on the western sea, Puri in the east, and Rameswaram at the southern tip — set so evenly that Badrinath and Rameswaram share nearly the same meridian, and Dwarka and Puri nearly the same parallel. Their gathering into a single pilgrimage is remembered in the work of Adi Shankaracharya, who is said to have travelled the length of the subcontinent and founded a matha at each of the four quarters, binding distant regions into one devotional whole.
A traditional saying holds that Vishnu bathes at Rameswaram, meditates at Badrinath, dines at Puri, and rests at Dwarka. Three of the four are seats of Vishnu and his avataras, while at Rameswaram it was Rama himself who worshipped Shiva to be absolved after the war in Lanka, so that here the two great streams of devotion meet. To walk the Char Dham is to cross the whole of the land as an act of faith, carrying the same prayer from one horizon to the other.
