Dwadash Jyotirlinga Yatra

The Dwadash Jyotirlinga Yatra is the complete circuit - all twelve Jyotirlingas in one continuous journey of sixteen nights and seventeen days from Delhi, crossing eight states from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and from the Tamil coast to 3,583 metres in the Garhwal Himalaya. Most pilgrims reach the twelve across a lifetime of separate trips; this itinerary sequences them into a single routed pilgrimage by air, rail and road. The western circuit opens at Somnath in Saurashtra, the first of the twelve and the shore temple facing the Arabian Sea, destroyed and rebuilt through successive centuries and standing today in the form completed in 1951; the Baan Stambh in its grounds marks an unbroken line of sea southward to Antarctica. Nageshwar follows near Dwarka on the Gujarat coast. The Maharashtra sector takes Trimbakeshwar near Nashik, where the lingam is three-faced - Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh in one stone, found at no other Jyotirlinga - and the Godavari rises from the Brahmagiri hill beside it; then Bhimashankar, set inside a Sahyadri wildlife sanctuary at the source of the Bhima; then Grishneshwar in red basalt beside the Ellora caves, traditionally the last of the twelve. Madhya Pradesh brings Mahakaleshwar at Ujjain - the only south-facing Jyotirlinga and the only one where the pre-dawn Bhasma Aarti is performed with sacred ash - and Omkareshwar on Mandhata, the Narmada island whose outline is read as the syllable Om. The southern circuit reaches Mallikarjuna at Srisailam, high in the Nallamala hills above the Krishna, one of the rare sites that is a Jyotirlinga and a Shakti Peeth at once; and Rameshwaram on Pamban island at the tip of Tamil Nadu, where the Ramanathaswamy temple holds the longest pillared corridor of any Hindu temple and twenty-two theerthams are visited before darshan. The Himalayan sector is Kedarnath, the highest of the twelve at 3,583 metres behind the Mandakini, open only from around Akshaya Tritiya until Bhai Dooj in October or November - which is why the complete circuit can only be attempted inside that season. The yatra closes on the Ganga at Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi, approached through the Vishwanath Dham corridor, and at Baidyanath in Deoghar, the twelfth, which is also counted among the Shakti Peeths and draws the Shravani Mela each monsoon. Seventeen days, twelve Jyotirlingas, eight states, and a climate range from 40C on the Tamil coast to near freezing at Kedarnath. Includes accommodation, transport, breakfast and dinner, sightseeing and 24x7 on-ground assistance.