How many Jyotirlingas are there in India?
Twelve. The Shiva Purana names twelve Jyotirlingas, and the Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram recites them in a fixed order beginning with Somnath in Gujarat and ending with Grishneshwar in Maharashtra. All twelve are in India, spread across eight states.
Which state has the most Jyotirlingas?
Maharashtra, with three — Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have two each. Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have one each. Some sources credit Maharashtra with five; see the section above for why.
Which is the first Jyotirlinga?
Somnath in Gujarat is listed first in the Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram, which is why it is called the first. The order is scriptural rather than chronological — it does not mean Somnath is the oldest structure. The present temple was completed in 1951, after being destroyed and rebuilt many times.
Which Jyotirlinga is the hardest to reach?
Kedarnath, without question. It sits at 3,583 m in the Himalaya, opens only from late April to Bhai Dooj, requires compulsory state registration, and the last 16–18 km from Gaurikund are covered on foot, by pony or by helicopter. Mallikarjuna at Srisailam is a distant second — a long drive through a tiger reserve that closes to traffic at night.
In what order should the 12 Jyotirlingas be visited?
There is no required order. The Stotram's order is for recitation, not travel — following it literally means crossing India several times. Most pilgrims travel geographically instead, clustering by region: the two in Gujarat together, the two in Madhya Pradesh together, the three in Maharashtra together.
Can all 12 Jyotirlingas be covered in one trip?
Yes, and many people do it — but it is a long trip. The shrines are spread across eight states and roughly 7,000 km of travel. Three weeks is realistic; two is punishing. Kedarnath is the constraint, because it is only open for part of the year.
What exactly is a Jyotirlinga?
Jyoti means light and linga the mark or sign of Shiva, so a Jyotirlinga is a shrine where Shiva is held to have appeared as a pillar of light rather than been installed by human hands. That self-manifestation — swayambhu — is what separates these twelve from the countless other Shiva temples in India.
Are the Jyotirlinga names available in Hindi?
Yes. Every name in the table above is given in Devanagari alongside the English, and this whole site has a complete Hindi edition at /hi — not a translation of the English pages but the same material written in Hindi.
