12 Jothiramalingam Name and Place: Full List with States

A straight list of all twelve Jyotirlingas with their names, exact places and states, plus the state-wise count, the three contested locations, and the river, hill and history links that UPSC turns into pair-matching questions.

All 12 Jothiramalingam: name, place and state

Jothiramalingam is the Tamil way of writing Jyotirlinga, and there are twelve of them spread across nine states. Maharashtra holds three, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh hold two each, and Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu have one each. The table below gives every name with its exact place, the state, and the one geographical or historical marker attached to it.

#	Jyotirlinga	Place	State	Marker worth remembering
1	Somnath	Prabhas Patan, near Veraval	Gujarat	Sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1025-26; rebuilt in 1951
2	Mallikarjuna	Srisailam, Nallamala Hills	Andhra Pradesh	On the Krishna; also a Shakti Peetha (Bhramaramba)
3	Mahakaleshwar	Ujjain	Madhya Pradesh	On the Shipra; only south-facing linga; Simhastha Kumbh site
4	Omkareshwar	Mandhata island, Khandwa district	Madhya Pradesh	On the Narmada
5	Kedarnath	Rudraprayag district	Uttarakhand	Highest of the twelve; part of the Uttarakhand Char Dham
6	Bhimashankar	Pune district, Sahyadris	Maharashtra	Source of the Bhima; wildlife sanctuary of the Indian giant squirrel
7	Kashi Vishwanath	Varanasi	Uttar Pradesh	Present temple built by Ahilyabai Holkar, 1780
8	Trimbakeshwar	Nashik district, Brahmagiri hill	Maharashtra	Source of the Godavari; Nashik Kumbh site
9	Vaidyanath	Deoghar	Jharkhand	Baba Baidyanath Dham; Shravani Mela; also counted as a Shakti Peetha
10	Nageshwar	Near Dwarka, Devbhumi Dwarka district	Gujarat	Coastal Saurashtra, close to the Dwarkadhish temple
11	Ramanathaswamy	Rameswaram island	Tamil Nadu	Longest temple corridor in India; only Jyotirlinga in the far south
12	Grishneshwar	Verul, near Ellora	Maharashtra	About a kilometre from the Ellora caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Why the spelling changes from Jyotirlinga to Jothiramalingam

The word is jyoti (light) plus linga. In Tamil and in south Indian usage it gets written as Jothirlingam, Jothiralingam or Jothiramalingam, which is also a common personal name, so the search term looks unfamiliar to someone used to the Devanagari spelling. There is no separate set of temples behind the different spelling. The traditional order in the table follows the Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Stotra, which begins with Somnath in Saurashtra and ends with Grishneshwar, and that order is worth learning as a sequence because it is easier to recall than a random list of twelve.

The three locations people argue about

Three entries in the list have rival claimants, and this is where most wrong answers come from. Vaidyanath is most widely identified with Deoghar in Jharkhand, but Parli Vaijnath in Maharashtra's Beed district and Baijnath in Himachal Pradesh both claim the title. Nageshwar is usually placed near Dwarka in Gujarat, with Aundha Nagnath in Maharashtra's Hingoli district and Jageshwar in Uttarakhand as the other claimants.

If you count the Maharashtra claimants, the state's tally rises from three to five, which is why some lists say Maharashtra has five Jyotirlingas. For an objective exam, go with the mainstream identification (Deoghar and Dwarka) and simply be aware that the alternatives exist. Do not memorise both versions as equally valid; you will freeze in the exam hall.

Jyotirlinga	Commonly accepted	Rival claimants
Vaidyanath	Deoghar, Jharkhand	Parli Vaijnath (Maharashtra), Baijnath (Himachal Pradesh)
Nageshwar	Near Dwarka, Gujarat	Aundha Nagnath (Maharashtra), Jageshwar (Uttarakhand)
Grishneshwar	Verul, Maharashtra	No serious dispute, but often confused with Ellora caves themselves

What UPSC does with this list

UPSC almost never asks "how many Jyotirlingas are there". It asks the fact sideways, through a pair. A shrine paired with a river, a temple paired with a state, a site paired with the dynasty or ruler who built it. That is why the third column of your notes should never be blank.

The productive links here are geographical and historical rather than devotional. Trimbakeshwar sits at the source of the Godavari and Bhimashankar at the source of the Bhima, so both belong in your peninsular drainage notes, not only in culture. Omkareshwar is on the Narmada and Mahakaleshwar on the Shipra, both in Madhya Pradesh, and aspirants routinely swap the two. Kashi Vishwanath and Grishneshwar were both rebuilt by Ahilyabai Holkar, which is a Maratha history hook. Somnath connects to the 1025-26 raid and to the 1951 reconstruction. Bhimashankar brings in the Indian giant squirrel sanctuary in the northern Western Ghats.

Once the list is in place, the only thing that raises your accuracy is seeing how this static material has actually been framed in past papers, because the framing is repetitive even when the facts change. Working through the culture and geography questions in the PYQ Mastery Course is more useful at this stage than adding a fourth source on temples, since it shows you which of these markers UPSC has bothered to test and which it has ignored for a decade.

How to fix the list in memory in one sitting

Do not learn twelve names in a row. Learn them by cluster, because the clusters also carry the geography.

West coast and Saurashtra: Somnath and Nageshwar, both Gujarat, both near the sea.
Madhya Pradesh pair: Mahakaleshwar on the Shipra at Ujjain, Omkareshwar on the Narmada.
Maharashtra trio: Bhimashankar (Bhima source), Trimbakeshwar (Godavari source), Grishneshwar (next to Ellora).
North: Kashi Vishwanath at Varanasi, Kedarnath in the Garhwal Himalaya, Vaidyanath at Deoghar.
South: Mallikarjuna at Srisailam on the Krishna, Ramanathaswamy at Rameswaram.

The part that actually earns marks

Knowing twelve names gets you nothing in Prelims. Knowing that Trimbakeshwar is the Godavari's source, that Grishneshwar sits beside a World Heritage Site, and that Ahilyabai Holkar rebuilt two of the twelve is what survives contact with an actual question. Write the list once, attach one verifiable marker to each entry, and revise the markers rather than the names.

FAQs

1. Which state has the most Jyotirlingas?

Maharashtra, with Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar. If you include the state's claims to Parli Vaijnath and Aundha Nagnath, the count rises to five, which is why some lists differ.

2. Is there any Jyotirlinga in Tamil Nadu?

Yes, one. The Ramanathaswamy temple at Rameswaram is the only Jyotirlinga in Tamil Nadu and the southernmost of the twelve.

3. Which Jyotirlinga is south-facing?

Mahakaleshwar at Ujjain is the only Jyotirlinga where the linga faces south, which is why it is called Dakshinamukhi. It is also known for the bhasma aarti performed at dawn.

4. Which is the highest and hardest to reach Jyotirlinga?

Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand, at roughly 3,580 metres in the Garhwal Himalaya. It stays closed for about six months in winter and is also one of the four Uttarakhand Char Dham sites.

5. What is the difference between a Jyotirlinga and a Shakti Peetha?

Jyotirlingas are twelve shrines of Shiva, while Shakti Peethas are sites associated with Sati and the goddess, and traditional lists of them run into dozens. A few places overlap, such as Srisailam and Deoghar, which are counted in both traditions.

6. Are the 12 Jyotirlingas the same as the Char Dham?

No. The Char Dham (Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri, Rameswaram) is a separate set, though Rameswaram appears in both lists, and Kedarnath belongs to the smaller Uttarakhand Char Dham circuit.