All 12 Jyotirlingas: Complete List, States, Towns and Order

A complete list of all 12 Jyotirlingas with their towns, states and rivers, the traditional shloka order, the two locations that are genuinely disputed, and a memory method that holds the list through a year of revision.

All 12 Jyotirlingas, in the traditional order

The 12 Jyotirlingas are Somnath, Mallikarjuna, Mahakaleshwar, Omkareshwar, Kedarnath, Bhimashankar, Kashi Vishwanath, Trimbakeshwar, Vaidyanath, Nageshwar, Rameshwaram and Grishneshwar. They are spread across seven states, with Maharashtra holding five and Madhya Pradesh holding two. The order below is the one from the Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram, which is the order most sources follow and the only one worth memorising.

Notice the geography before you memorise anything. The list runs roughly west, then south, then up to central India, then the Himalaya, then back down the Deccan, then east, then the far south. It is not random. The twelve were chosen to cover the subcontinent, which is why a single list contains a Himalayan shrine at 3,583 metres and a temple on an island off Dwarka.

#	Jyotirlinga	Town / Location	State	Nearby river or water body
1	Somnath	Prabhas Patan, Veraval, Gir Somnath	Gujarat	Arabian Sea (Hiran, Kapila, Saraswati confluence)
2	Mallikarjuna	Srisailam, Nandyal district	Andhra Pradesh	Krishna (Patala Ganga)
3	Mahakaleshwar	Ujjain	Madhya Pradesh	Shipra
4	Omkareshwar	Mandhata island, Khandwa	Madhya Pradesh	Narmada
5	Kedarnath	Kedarnath, Rudraprayag	Uttarakhand	Mandakini
6	Bhimashankar	Bhorgiri, Pune district	Maharashtra	Bhima (source)
7	Kashi Vishwanath	Varanasi	Uttar Pradesh	Ganga
8	Trimbakeshwar	Trimbak, Nashik district	Maharashtra	Godavari (source)
9	Vaidyanath	Deoghar	Jharkhand	Near the Ganga basin; disputed site
10	Nageshwar	Dwarka (Daruka vana)	Gujarat	Arabian Sea coast; disputed site
11	Rameshwaram	Rameswaram, Pamban island	Tamil Nadu	Gulf of Mannar / Bay of Bengal
12	Grishneshwar	Verul, near Ellora, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar	Maharashtra	Elaganga

The two that are genuinely disputed

Ten of the twelve are settled. Two are not, and anyone who tells you otherwise is simplifying.

Vaidyanath is the bigger argument. Baidyanath Dham at Deoghar in Jharkhand is the most widely accepted site and the one that draws the Shravani Mela crowds. But Parli Vaijnath in Beed district, Maharashtra, and Baijnath in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, both claim the same Jyotirlinga, and each has a long local tradition behind it. Exam papers and standard tourism sources go with Deoghar.

Nageshwar is the second. The Dwarka site in Gujarat is the standard answer. Jageshwar near Almora in Uttarakhand and the Aundha Nagnath temple in Hingoli district, Maharashtra, are the rival claimants. Again, go with Dwarka if you are answering a question, but know that the dispute exists, because a well-set question can be built on exactly this ambiguity.

Jyotirlinga	Standard answer	Rival claims
Vaidyanath	Deoghar, Jharkhand	Parli Vaijnath (Maharashtra), Baijnath (Himachal Pradesh)
Nageshwar	Dwarka, Gujarat	Jageshwar (Uttarakhand), Aundha Nagnath (Maharashtra)

A memory method that survives six months

Most people memorise this list twice and forget it twice. The reason is that they memorise twelve names as a flat string, with nothing holding them together.

Group by state instead. Maharashtra has five: Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar, Grishneshwar, and the two disputed claimants if you count them. Keep it to the three undisputed ones and you have a solid block. Gujarat has two, both coastal: Somnath and Nageshwar. Madhya Pradesh has two, both on rivers: Mahakaleshwar on the Shipra, Omkareshwar on the Narmada. That is seven of twelve in three chunks.

The remaining five are all singles in their own state, and each is famous enough to recall on its own: Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, Kashi Vishwanath in Uttar Pradesh, Vaidyanath in Jharkhand, Mallikarjuna in Andhra Pradesh, Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. Five states, five temples, one each.

If you want a sound-based hook for the traditional order, the opening line of the stotram does the work: Saurashtre Somanatham cha, Srishaile Mallikarjunam, Ujjayinyam Mahakalam, Omkaram Amaleshwaram. The shloka names the place before the deity in each case, which is why it sticks better than a plain list.

Three coastal or island sites: Somnath, Nageshwar, Rameshwaram
Two river-source sites: Bhimashankar (Bhima), Trimbakeshwar (Godavari)
One high-altitude site: Kedarnath, part of both the Char Dham of Uttarakhand and the Panch Kedar
One cave-temple neighbour: Grishneshwar, the smallest of the twelve, right next to the Ellora caves

What examiners actually build questions on

Nobody asks you to list all twelve. That is a school quiz question, not a Prelims one. What gets asked is the second layer.

River pairings come up often, because they let a setter test two syllabus areas at once. Omkareshwar sits on a Narmada island. Mahakaleshwar is on the Shipra at Ujjain, which also hosts the Simhastha Kumbh. Trimbakeshwar is at the source of the Godavari, Bhimashankar at the source of the Bhima. Kedarnath is on the Mandakini, which joins the Alaknanda at Rudraprayag, one of the Panch Prayag.

Overlapping classifications are the other favourite. Kedarnath belongs to the Char Dham of Uttarakhand, the Panch Kedar, and the twelve Jyotirlingas simultaneously. Rameshwaram is both a Jyotirlinga and one of the four Char Dham of the full-India circuit. Somnath was rebuilt in 1951 under Sardar Patel's initiative after repeated destruction, the earliest famous raid being Mahmud of Ghazni's in 1025 CE, which pulls the temple into medieval history as well as culture.

And Grishneshwar, often skipped because it is the least visited, sits at Verul beside Ellora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A question can approach it from the caves rather than the temple.

If you want to see how this layering works across topics, read past papers rather than notes. The pattern in temple and culture questions is consistent enough that CSEWhy's PYQ Mastery Course is built around reading questions backwards to the concept being tested, which is what turns a list like this from memorised trivia into something you can actually answer with.

The one thing to fix in how you store this

Do not keep the Jyotirlingas as a standalone page in your notes. That page will never be revised.

Attach each one to something you already study. Somnath goes with your medieval history notes on Ghazni and with the 1951 reconstruction. Omkareshwar goes with the Narmada, next to Sardar Sarovar and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Grishneshwar goes with Ellora and Rashtrakuta patronage. Rameshwaram goes with the Pamban bridge and Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve. Kedarnath goes with the 2013 floods and the Char Dham road project.

Done that way, you revise the list five times a year without ever opening a page titled Jyotirlingas. That is the difference between a fact you have read and a fact you can retrieve under time pressure.

FAQs

1. Which state has the most Jyotirlingas?

Maharashtra, with Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar as the undisputed three. If the contested claims of Parli Vaijnath and Aundha Nagnath are counted, the number rises to five.

2. Which is the first Jyotirlinga?

Somnath in Prabhas Patan, Gujarat, is listed first in the Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram and is traditionally regarded as the first of the twelve. The present temple was rebuilt in 1951 after a history of repeated destruction and reconstruction.

3. Are Jyotirlingas and Shakti Peethas the same thing?

No. Jyotirlingas are twelve shrines of Shiva associated with the self-manifested linga of light, while Shakti Peethas are sites linked to the fallen body parts of Sati and are devoted to the goddess. A few towns, such as Varanasi, host both.

4. Which Jyotirlinga is the hardest to reach?

Kedarnath, at roughly 3,583 metres in Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand. The shrine is closed through winter and the final stretch is a trek of about 16 km from Gaurikund, though helicopter services operate during the open season.

5. How many Jyotirlingas are in South India?

Two: Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh and Ramanathaswamy at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. Rameshwaram also features in the four Char Dham of the all-India circuit.

6. Is there a Jyotirlinga in Delhi or Rajasthan?

No. The twelve are located in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu only.