Place · hill Shiva temple · India
Parli Vaijnath, Beed
Also known as Beed, Parli Vaijnath, Vaijnath, Vaijnath (Parli)
Parli, on a hill in Beed district, Maharashtra's claimant to the Vaidyanatha place among the twelve, rebuilt like so much else by Ahilyabai Holkar. Deoghar in Jharkhand holds that position in most lists, and Baijnath in Himachal is sometimes advanced as a third. The Purana's wording does not settle it.
- Periods
- Classical and Puranic Age, Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 18.855, 76.524
Connections (3)
- Alternative toDeoghar Baidyanāth
Parli Vaijnath in Beed district contests Deoghar's claim to be the Vaidyanatha of the twelve, and both maintain it. Deoghar has the kanwar pilgrimage and the far greater footfall; Parli has the Marathwada tradition, an Ahilyabai rebuilding and a hilltop site. Neither claim has ever been resolved, and pilgrims completing the twelve commonly visit both, which is how the list absorbs its own contradictions without breaking.
- PatronageAhilyabai Holkar
Ahilyabai restored Parli Vaijnath in the eighteenth century, as she did Grishneshwar, Omkareshwar, Trimbakeshwar and Kashi Vishvanatha — and the pattern is worth noticing, because she repaired both sides of contested identifications, endowing Parli and Deoghar alike. Her programme was not adjudicating which shrine was the true jyotirlinga; it was keeping every plausible one in working order.
- Site adjacencyAmbajogai
Ambajogai, 25 kilometres from Parli in the Balaghat range, holds Yogeshwari, the family goddess of a great many Marathwada households, so the district carries a Shaiva and a Shakta pole within a morning's travel of each other. Pilgrims combine them as a matter of course. Ambajogai also holds the samadhi of Mukundaraj, whose Vivekasindhu is among the earliest works of Marathi literature, which gives the small town a third claim entirely.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Parli Vaijnath”. The Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭirudra Saṃhitā; and the temple establishments’ own published records.
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