The 12 Jyotirlinga Names, in the Traditional Order
A direct list of the twelve Jyotirlinga names with their towns, states and rivers, the Sanskrit shloka that fixes their order, the Vaidyanath and Nageshwar disputes, and the state-wise grouping that makes the list easy to remember.
A direct list of the twelve Jyotirlinga names with their towns, states and rivers, the Sanskrit shloka that fixes their order, the Vaidyanath and Nageshwar disputes, and the state-wise grouping that makes the list easy to remember.
The twelve names, in order
The twelve Jyotirlingas are Somnath, Mallikarjuna, Mahakaleshwar, Omkareshwar, Kedarnath, Bhimashankar, Kashi Vishwanath, Trimbakeshwar, Vaidyanath, Nageshwar, Ramanathaswamy and Grishneshwar. They are spread across nine states, from Gujarat's Saurashtra coast to Rameswaram island in Tamil Nadu. The order below is the traditional one, not a geographical or chronological sequence, and it is the order almost every list follows.
| # | Jyotirlinga | Place | State | Nearby river or feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somnath | Prabhas Patan, near Veraval | Gujarat | Arabian Sea coast; Hiran, Kapila and Saraswati confluence |
| 2 | Mallikarjuna | Srisailam | Andhra Pradesh | Krishna river, Nallamala hills |
| 3 | Mahakaleshwar | Ujjain | Madhya Pradesh | Shipra river |
| 4 | Omkareshwar | Mandhata island, Khandwa district | Madhya Pradesh | Narmada river |
| 5 | Kedarnath | Rudraprayag district | Uttarakhand | Mandakini river, Garhwal Himalaya |
| 6 | Bhimashankar | Pune district, Sahyadri hills | Maharashtra | Source of the Bhima river |
| 7 | Kashi Vishwanath | Varanasi | Uttar Pradesh | Ganga |
| 8 | Trimbakeshwar | Nashik district | Maharashtra | Source of the Godavari, Brahmagiri hill |
| 9 | Vaidyanath | Deoghar (also claimed at Parli) | Jharkhand (claim: Maharashtra) | Santhal Parganas plateau |
| 10 | Nageshwar | Near Dwarka (also claimed at Aundha and Jageshwar) | Gujarat (claims: Maharashtra, Uttarakhand) | Gulf of Kachchh coast |
| 11 | Ramanathaswamy | Rameswaram | Tamil Nadu | Pamban island, Gulf of Mannar |
| 12 | Grishneshwar | Verul, near the Ellora caves | Maharashtra | Close to Daulatabad fort |
Where the order comes from
The sequence is not arbitrary. It is fixed by the Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Stotram, a twelve-line Sanskrit hymn traditionally attributed to Adi Shankaracharya, which begins Saurashtre Somnatham cha Srishaile Mallikarjunam. Each half-line names a region and then the shrine in it, which is why the list opens in Saurashtra and closes at Grishneshwar.
That hymn is also the reason lists agree with each other. Temple traditions across India vary enormously, but the Jyotirlinga count stayed at twelve because a single memorised verse carried it. If you want the order to stick, learn the first four words of each line rather than the English list. The Shiva Purana's Kotirudra Samhita gives the same twelve with the mythological framing: Shiva appearing as a column of light, a jyoti, with no beginning or end.
The two that are genuinely disputed
Ten of the twelve have an undisputed address. Two do not, and any honest list has to say so.
Vaidyanath is claimed by the Baidyanath Dham temple at Deoghar in Jharkhand, which draws the enormous Shravani Mela kanwar pilgrimage each monsoon, and by Parli Vaijnath in Beed district, Maharashtra. A third, weaker claim comes from Baijnath in Himachal Pradesh. The dispute turns on how you read the phrase Parlyam Vaidyanatham cha in the stotram, since some manuscript traditions read Chitabhoomau instead, which points to Deoghar.
Nageshwar is the messier one. The popular identification is the temple near Dwarka in Gujarat, with its huge seated Shiva statue visible from the road. Aundha Nagnath in Hingoli district, Maharashtra, and Jageshwar near Almora in Uttarakhand both make serious counterclaims, and Jageshwar's temple cluster is by far the oldest structure of the three. Most published lists go with Dwarka. Pilgrims who want to be safe visit more than one.
The easiest way to remember all twelve
Do not memorise twelve isolated names. Group them by state and the list collapses to five things.
Maharashtra has three on the standard list: Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar. Count the disputed Parli Vaijnath and Aundha Nagnath and the state claims five, which is why Maharashtra is so often called the state with the most Jyotirlingas. Madhya Pradesh has two, Mahakaleshwar at Ujjain and Omkareshwar on the Narmada. Gujarat has two, Somnath and Nageshwar. The remaining four sit one each in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand.
A second hook is rivers and terrain. Trimbakeshwar is at the Godavari's source, Bhimashankar at the Bhima's, Omkareshwar on the Narmada, Kashi Vishwanath on the Ganga, Kedarnath above the Mandakini. Somnath and Ramanathaswamy are the two coastal ones, at opposite ends of the peninsula. Once the map is in your head the names follow it.
What actually gets asked about them
General knowledge papers and quizzes rarely ask you to recite all twelve. They ask for the odd link: which Jyotirlinga stands near the Ellora caves (Grishneshwar), which one is on an island in the Narmada (Omkareshwar), which is the northernmost (Kedarnath), which is the southernmost (Ramanathaswamy), which state has the most.
Rameswaram is worth a second look because it carries more than the Jyotirlinga tag. It is also one of the four Char Dham sites, and its corridor is the longest in any Indian temple. Somnath matters in history papers for Mahmud of Ghazni's raid in 1025 and for the 1951 reconstruction pushed by Sardar Patel and inaugurated by Rajendra Prasad. Kedarnath sits in the record for the 2013 Uttarakhand floods.
The twelve names are the easy part. What separates someone who has actually read about them is knowing that two addresses are contested and being able to say why.
FAQs
1. Which is the first Jyotirlinga?
Somnath in Prabhas Patan, near Veraval in Gujarat, is counted first because the Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Stotram opens with it. The order is traditional, based on the hymn, and does not indicate which temple is oldest.
2. Which state has the most Jyotirlingas?
Maharashtra. It has three on the standard list (Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar), and five if you accept its claims to Parli Vaijnath as Vaidyanath and Aundha Nagnath as Nageshwar.
3. What is the difference between a Jyotirlinga and an ordinary Shivling?
Any Shivling is a representation of Shiva installed for worship. A Jyotirlinga is one of twelve specific shrines where Shiva is believed to have appeared on his own as an infinite column of light, so the linga is treated as self-manifested rather than installed.
4. Can all 12 Jyotirlingas be visited in one trip?
Yes, though it is a long circuit covering roughly 6,000 km across nine states. Most pilgrims split it into regional legs, and Kedarnath is the constraint because it stays closed from around November to late April.
5. Which Jyotirlinga temple is the smallest?
Grishneshwar at Verul near Ellora is generally described as the smallest of the twelve. The present temple was rebuilt in the 18th century by Ahilyabai Holkar, who also funded restoration at Kashi Vishwanath and Somnath.
6. Is Kedarnath both a Jyotirlinga and a Char Dham site?
Kedarnath is a Jyotirlinga and part of the Chota Char Dham circuit of Uttarakhand, along with Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Rameswaram, another Jyotirlinga, belongs to the original all-India Char Dham.