Shiva Mahadev
Devon ke Dev Mahadev — the lord of all lords, whose devotees stand in every direction of Bharat and whose great homes reach far beyond the twelve Jyotirlingas.
1 TemplesDevon ke Dev — the God of gods — Mahadev, the lord of all lords. No deity of Sanatan Dharma is invoked by more names: Bholenath, the guileless one who gives before he is asked; Pashupati, lord of every creature that breathes; Adiyogi, the first of yogis and the fountainhead of yoga itself; Nataraja, whose dance beats out the making and the unmaking of the worlds; Kailasapati, the ascetic of the snow-mountain, ash-smeared and moon-crowned, with Ganga in his matted hair. And he is the most reachable of the great: an unshaped stone under a peepal at a village's edge is his seat, and a lota of water poured over it the whole of the offering. The twelve Jyotirlingas — the columns of light in which he stood forth without beginning or end — are the crown of that worship, and they keep their own yatra and their own page here. This tradition gathers the other great homes of Mahadev, and no temple counted among the twelve is named again on this one: what remains is not the smaller company but the vaster, the everywhere-presence the twelve crown and can never exhaust.
His devotees stand in every direction of Bharat, and wherever a city is held sacred, tradition sets a fierce form of Mahadev at its gate to keep it. Kaal Bhairav is the Kotwal of Kashi, the magistrate of Shiva's own city, and the pilgrim custom of Varanasi holds that a Kashi yatra taken without his darshan is not complete — one asks the Kotwal's leave around the darshan of Vishwanath himself. He is the first temple of this tradition on MereMandir. Around him stand the Ashta Bhairav, eight guardians of Kashi's directions, whose shrines devotees walk in the days around Bhairav Ashtami, also called Kala Bhairava Jayanti — the eighth day of the waning moon in Margashirsha in the north, and in Kartik in the south. Ujjain keeps its own Kaal Bhairav, and city after city its Kshetrapala; the pattern is among the oldest in Shaiva practice.
Beyond the guardians his homes climb the whole height of the land. In the Garhwal Himalaya the Panch Kedar — Kedarnath, Tungnath, Madhyamaheshwar, Rudranath and Kalpeshwar — mark the five places where Mahadev, taking the form of a bull to elude the Pandavas, is said to have surfaced again to be worshipped. In the south the Pancha Bhuta Sthalam seat him in the five elements: earth at Ekambareswarar in Kanchipuram, water at Jambukeswarar in Thiruvanaikaval, fire at Arunachaleswarar in Thiruvannamalai, air at Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh, and ether at the Thillai Nataraja temple of Chidambaram, where he dances in empty space. In Mewar he is Eklingji of Kailashpuri near Udaipur, the ruling deity of the kingdom itself: the Maharanas of Mewar have reigned as his diwan, holding the land in his name and not their own. In Kerala, Vadakkunnathan at Thrissur — held in local tradition to be the first of the 108 Shiva temples Parashurama gave that coast, its lingam long since buried under centuries of ghee in the shape of Kailash — presides over the Thekkinkadu maidan where Thrissur Pooram is held. These are the homes this tradition is being built out towards, one researched entry at a time.
The Pilgrimage Circuit
There is no fixed circuit here, and that is his glory: every city, every hill, every village of Bharat keeps its own Mahadev. The crown circuit of Shaiva pilgrimage is the twelve Jyotirlingas, remembered together in a single verse and given their own tradition page here. The homes gathered on this page are sought as the city or the mountain they guard is sought, and are woven into whatever yatra brings a devotee near — a darshan taken along the way is no lesser darshan. Kaal Bhairav of Kashi, the Kotwal of the city, is the first entry of this tradition on MereMandir.
Shiva Mahadev Temples
See all on the map →A hand-researched beginning, not a full count — more great temples of this tradition are added as our research completes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Shiva temples belong to this tradition?+
The great homes of Mahadev across Bharat that stand outside the twelve Jyotirlingas — the Bhairav guardians who keep the sacred cities, the shrines of the old towns and the hills, and the elemental and regional seats of Shiva: the Panch Kedar of Garhwal, the Pancha Bhuta Sthalam of the south, Eklingji of Mewar, Vadakkunnathan of Kerala and their like. The twelve Jyotirlingas are the crown circuit of Shaiva pilgrimage and keep their own tradition page on MereMandir, so a temple counted among the twelve is never named here as well. Kaal Bhairav of Kashi opens this tradition.
Who is Kaal Bhairav, and why do pilgrims in Kashi seek him?+
Kaal Bhairav is Mahadev in his fierce guardian form and the Kotwal — the magistrate — of Kashi, the city Shiva never leaves. Tradition holds that no one abides there without his leave, and that a Kashi yatra without his darshan is incomplete, so pilgrims present themselves to the Kotwal around their darshan of Kashi Vishwanath. His great day is Bhairav Ashtami, or Kala Bhairava Jayanti, when devotees in Varanasi also walk the eight shrines of the Ashta Bhairav.
What are the Pancha Bhuta Sthalam and the Panch Kedar?+
Two of the most beloved groupings of Mahadev's homes outside the twelve Jyotirlingas. The Pancha Bhuta Sthalam are five southern temples where Shiva is worshipped through the five elements — earth at Ekambareswarar (Kanchipuram), water at Jambukeswarar (Thiruvanaikaval), fire at Arunachaleswarar (Thiruvannamalai), air at Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh and ether at the Thillai Nataraja temple of Chidambaram, where he dances in empty space. The Panch Kedar are five Himalayan shrines in Garhwal — Kedarnath, Tungnath, Madhyamaheshwar, Rudranath and Kalpeshwar — raised where Mahadev surfaced after taking the form of a bull; Kedarnath is also one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and is listed there.
When is the best time to seek Shiva's darshan?+
Maha Shivaratri — the fourteenth night of the waning moon in Phalguna (February–March) — is the great night of Mahadev, kept with fasting and night-long worship across the whole of Bharat, and the Chaturdashi of every dark fortnight carries a smaller share of the same. Shravan (July–August) is Shiva's own month, when Mondays draw the heaviest abhishekams and the kanwariyas walk with Ganga water on their shoulders. Season matters most in the hills: the Garhwal shrines open for the summer and close as the passes shut, Kalpeshwar alone staying reachable through the year, while the city temples of the plains and the south give darshan the year round.