Journey
All-India Char Dham
The All India Char Dham is a pilgrimage circuit of four Hindu sites at the subcontinent's cardinal points: Badrinath (north, Uttarakhand), Dwarka (west, Gujarat), Puri (east, Odisha), and Rameswaram (south, Tamil Nadu). Tradition credits Adi Shankaracharya (8th–9th c.) with unifying them, anchoring each with a monastic matha. The circuit is walked clockwise, and completing all four is held to close a life's obligations.
Stops (4)
- Badrīnāth · North
Vishnu as Badrīnārāyan, above the Alaknandā at about 3,100 m. The northern seat of the four, and the point the Himalayan circuit also closes on.
- Purī / Jagannātha Purī · East
Jagannātha, Balabhadra and Subhadrā carved in wood and remade at the Navakalevara. The eastern seat, and the only dhām whose images are periodically replaced.
- Rāmeshvara / Rameswaram · South
The southern seat, where Rāma is said to have worshipped Shiva before crossing to Lankā, which is why this one place is on both the Vaishnava dhām circuit and the Shaiva jyotirlinga list.
- Dvārakā / Dvārāvatī · West
Krishna's city on the Saurashtra coast. The Dvārakādhīsha temple stands above a shoreline tradition holds took the older city.