Sacred circuits

Across the land stand twelve shrines where Shiva is worshipped not as an image but as a lingam of light — a self-manifest column of radiance said to have neither beginning nor end.

Among the twelve Jyotirlingas, a few names are claimed by more than one shrine, each held by its own region as the place where that light appeared.

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.

High in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand lie four shrines walked together as a single summer pilgrimage, opening when the snows retreat and closing again with winter.

Eight temples of Ganesha stand within the region around Pune, walked in a set order as the Ashtavinayaka yatra.

The Shakti Peethas are the seats of the Goddess, revered as the places where the earth itself was hallowed by her presence.

Five temples of Shiva in the south embody the five great elements from which all things are made — earth, water, fire, air, and space.

The six abodes of Murugan — the warrior son of Shiva, called also Kartikeya, Skanda, and Subrahmanya — are the shrines the Tamil tradition holds as his chosen homes on earth.

Five shrines of Shiva stand scattered high in the Garhwal Himalayas, bound together by a story from the Mahabharata told in the Kedarakhanda.

Five temples of Shiva in the Andhra country enshrine the pieces of a single lingam, and their story is told in the Skanda Purana.

Around the town of Kumbakonam in the Kaveri delta lie nine temples, each linked to one of the Navagraha — the nine celestial powers that tradition holds to shape the courses of life: the Sun and Moon, the five planets, and the two lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu.

The Divya Desams are the abodes of Vishnu praised in the songs of the Alvars, the poet-saints of the Sri Vaishnava tradition, whose four thousand Tamil verses are gathered as the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.