Char Dham means “four abodes”. The tradition names four great sacred places, one near each corner of India: Badrinath in the Himalaya, Dwarka on the western coast, Puri on the eastern coast and Rameswaram at the southern end. A pilgrim who visits all four is held to have completed a pilgrimage of the whole land. Do not confuse this circuit with the Chota Char Dham, the smaller Himalayan circuit in Uttarakhand, which has a different set of four sites and a much shorter history in its present form.
How the idea arose
The tradition connects the four dhams with Adi Shankara, the teacher of Advaita Vedanta who is placed in the eighth century by most scholars, though the dates are debated. He is said to have founded four monastic centres, called mathas or peethas, in the four directions: Jyotirmath near Badrinath in the north, the Sharada Peetha at Dwarka in the west, the Govardhana Peetha at Puri in the east, and the Sringeri Sharada Peetha in the south. The southern matha is at Sringeri in Karnataka, and not at Rameswaram, so the matha circuit and the Char Dham circuit are close relatives and not identical. Historians note that the four-dham list as a single pilgrimage took its present shape over a long time, and that Rameswaram and Badrinath were famous well before it.
A second layer of belief assigns each dham to an age of the world. In one common telling, Badrinath belongs to the Satya Yuga, Rameswaram to the Treta Yuga, Dwarka to the Dvapara Yuga and Puri to the Kali Yuga. This arrangement is a devotional pattern and the sources vary on the details.
The four sites also cover the traditions of Hindu worship. Three are Vaishnava, with Vishnu as Badrinath, Krishna as Dwarkadhish and Jagannath at Puri, and the fourth, Rameswaram, is a Shaiva shrine with a Rama legend, as the page on the Rameswaram jyotirlinga explains.
Badrinath
Badrinath stands on the Alaknanda river in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, at about three thousand metres. Its deity is Vishnu as Badrinarayan, shown in meditation. The name comes from the badri, the wild jujube tree, and the legend says that Lakshmi sheltered Vishnu in the form of this tree while he practised austerity in the snow. Tradition credits Adi Shankara with reviving the worship, and the head priest, the Rawal, comes by custom from a Nambudiri family of Kerala. Hot springs near the temple, called Tapt Kund, are used for a bath before darshan.
The temple is open only in the warmer part of the year and closes for winter, when the deity is worshipped at Joshimath. The dates are announced each year by the temple committee, so we do not quote them. Nearest airport: Jolly Grant, Dehradun. Nearest railway station: Rishikesh, with Haridwar as a larger junction. Badrinath is also one of the four sites of the Chota Char Dham.
Dwarka
Dwarka lies on the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, at the mouth of the Gomti river, and is held to be the city of Krishna in his later life. The Dwarkadhish temple, a large limestone and sandstone building of five storeys on seventy-two pillars, is the main shrine. Tradition says it was first raised by Krishna’s great-grandson Vajranabha, and the historical record shows the present structure was built and rebuilt over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Adi Shankara is remembered here, and the Sharada Peetha stands in the town. Pilgrims usually add Bet Dwarka, an island reached by ferry, and the Nageshwar jyotirlinga.
Dwarka is busy on Janmashtami, the birthday of Krishna, and our Janmashtami puja guide describes it. Nearest airport: Jamnagar. Nearest railway station: Dwarka.
Puri
Puri, on the coast of Odisha, is the home of Jagannath, Lord of the Universe, worshipped with his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra in wooden forms that are renewed in a ritual cycle called Nabakalebara. Historians date the present temple to the twelfth century, built under the Eastern Ganga king Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, and the legend names King Indradyumna as the first builder. The temple is known for its Ratha Yatra, the chariot festival, and for its kitchen, where the food offered to the deity, called mahaprasad, is cooked in earthen pots on a very large scale.
Entry to the temple has long been restricted to Hindus under rules set by the temple administration, so non-Hindu visitors should read the official notices and respect them. The Govardhana Peetha of Adi Shankara is also in Puri. Nearest airport: Bhubaneswar. Nearest railway station: Puri.
Rameswaram
Rameswaram is an island town in Tamil Nadu, where Rama is said to have worshipped Shiva before or after the war in Lanka. The Ramanathaswamy temple, with its long pillared corridors and twenty-two sacred wells, is described in detail on our Rameswaram page. Nearest airport: Madurai. Nearest railway station: Rameswaram.
Planning the yatra
The traditional direction of the circuit is clockwise, beginning at Puri in the east, going south to Rameswaram, west to Dwarka and ending in the north at Badrinath. Most families today do not follow that order strictly. They divide it into separate trips, and the long distances between the four make this sensible. Choose the season for each: the Himalayan site needs the warmer months, the southern coast is more comfortable in the cooler ones, and the monsoon affects travel in all of them. Pilgrims who are older or have a medical condition should consult a doctor before Badrinath, because of the height.
Timings, entry rules, booking systems and fees for each temple are set by its own administration and change. Please read the official websites before you travel. We do not quote them.
Related pages
- Pilgrimage guides
- Chota Char Dham
- The twelve jyotirlingas
- Kedarnath jyotirlinga
- Krishnashtakam
- Achyutashtakam
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is the difference between the Char Dham and the Chota Char Dham?
The Char Dham are Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram, one for each corner of India. The Chota Char Dham are Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, all in Uttarakhand. Badrinath belongs to both.
↳ Did Adi Shankara establish the Char Dham?
Tradition credits him with founding four mathas in the four directions and with reviving worship at the great sites. Historians say the Char Dham as a single circuit took its shape over a long period, and that the sites were important earlier.
↳ In what order should the four be visited?
The traditional order goes clockwise from Puri to Rameswaram, Dwarka and Badrinath. Families today usually visit them in separate trips and in whichever order suits the seasons.
↳ Can non-Hindus enter the temples?
Rules differ between temples and are set by each administration. Puri has long restricted entry to Hindus, so please read the official notices of each temple.
↳ Where do I find timings and booking details?
On the official website of each temple or its trust. Those details change, so this page does not quote them.