The Lingashtakam is a Sanskrit hymn of eight verses in praise of the linga, the sign of Shiva worshipped in his shrines, and it is popularly attributed to Adi Shankaracharya. Its name joins linga with ashtakam, a hymn of eight verses. All thirty-two lines of those verses end on the word lingam, and each verse closes with the same refrain, tat pranamami sadashiva lingam: I bow to that linga of Sadashiva. A closing couplet follows.
The verses praise the linga as worshipped by Brahma, Vishnu and the gods, by sages, siddhas and asuras alike — pure and shining, the end of the sorrow that comes with birth. It is the linga that burned Kama, humbled the pride of Ravana and ended the sacrifice of Daksha. It is anointed with fragrant pastes, kumkum and sandal, adorned with gold and gems, garlanded with lotuses and encircled by the king of serpents; it shines like ten million suns, set within an eight-petalled lotus, the cause from which all things arise. The last verse has it worshipped by Brihaspati, the guru of the gods, with flowers from the gardens of heaven, and calls it the Paramatman, beyond all that is beyond.
Linga means sign, and the Shiva Purana tells how Shiva appeared to Brahma and Vishnu as an endless pillar of light — the jyotirlinga. Tradition holds that the night he appeared from the pillar is Maha Shivaratri, and the twelve Jyotirlingas are held to be the shrines where he so appeared. In this collection they run from Somnath on the Arabian Sea and Mallikarjuna at Srisailam to Kashi Vishwanath on the Ganga, Kedarnath in the Himalaya and Rameswaram facing Lanka, with Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar in Maharashtra.