Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga: Deoghar, Parli and Baijnath, the Rival Claims

Vaidyanath means “lord of physicians”, a name of Shiva as the healer of body and mind, and the shrine is the fifth in the traditional list of the twelve jyotirlingas. It is one of three places on that list where devout people disagree about where the true site is, and we think the honest way to write about it is to name the claimants and let you decide where to go.

The disagreement

The old hymn that lists the twelve, traditionally attributed to Adi Shankara, says “Parlyam Vaidyanatham”, which can be read as “Vaidyanath at Parli”. The Shiva Purana, in its list, gives the name with a place described as Chitabhumi, the “cremation ground”. Different traditions identify these words with different towns:

• Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar, Jharkhand. The best known and most visited. Tradition and the Puranic story below place Shiva’s linga here, and the town’s old name Chitabhumi is cited in support. Millions of pilgrims come in the monsoon month of Shravan.
• Parli Vaijnath, Beed district, Maharashtra. Its supporters point to the word “Parlyam” in the hymn and say the temple’s location on the hill at Parli matches it. It is a Hemadpanthi style temple, rebuilt in the eighteenth century by Ahilyabai Holkar.
• Baijnath, Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh. An old stone temple in the Nagara style, founded in the early thirteenth century, whose local tradition claims the name of Vaidyanath.

Scholars have not reached a single answer. The texts are short, place names are repeated in several regions, and each temple has centuries of worship behind it. A visitor to any of the three is on a devout pilgrimage. We write below about Deoghar in detail, because it has the largest pilgrimage, and describe the other two briefly.

The legend

The story told at Deoghar comes from the Puranas and concerns Ravana, king of Lanka. Ravana was a great devotee of Shiva and wished to take Shiva’s presence to Lanka to make his kingdom unconquerable. He went to Kailash and performed severe austerity, offering his ten heads one by one. Shiva, pleased, healed him and gave him an Atmalinga, a linga holding the god’s own power, on one condition: that Ravana must never set it on the ground until he reached Lanka, for wherever it was placed it would stay.

The gods feared what Ravana would do with such power. As he travelled, Varuna entered his body and he felt an urgent need to relieve himself. Vishnu, disguised as a young shepherd, appeared and offered to hold the linga for a moment. The shepherd, called Baiju, put it down. When Ravana came back, he could not move it, and he pressed his thumb on the linga in anger. The linga stayed where it was, and Ravana returned empty-handed. Because Ravana was healed here by Shiva, the god is worshipped at the place as Vaidyanath, the healer. The place is also called Baijnath after the shepherd.

History and the temple at Deoghar

Baidyanath Dham stands in a large complex of more than twenty temples in the town of Deoghar, in the Santhal Parganas. The main shrine has a pyramidal spire topped with a lotus. Scholars place the origin of the shrine early and say it has been repaired and added to many times. Tradition credits Puran Mal of Giridih with a major repair in the late sixteenth century, and Raja Man Singh of Amber with the large tank. Some lists of Shakti Peethas also count the site, where the heart of the goddess is said to have fallen, and the goddess has her own shrine in the complex.

The great event is the Shravani Mela, a month in monsoon during which pilgrims in saffron clothes, called kanwariyas, walk from Sultanganj, on the Ganga in Bihar, to Deoghar, carrying Ganga water on their shoulders to pour over the linga. The distance is over a hundred kilometres and many do it on foot.

How to get there (Deoghar)

• Airport: Deoghar has its own small airport with limited services. Check which cities have flights at the time of travel. Ranchi, Patna and Kolkata are the larger gateways.
• Railway: Jasidih Junction on the Howrah to Delhi main line is the nearest major station, a short road journey away. Deoghar also has its own station.
• Parli: the nearest station is Parli Vaijnath itself, and Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) or Hyderabad are used for flights. Baijnath: the nearest station is Baijnath Paprola on the narrow gauge line, and Gaggal near Kangra is the nearest airport.

The season

At Deoghar the Shravan month is by far the most crowded. If you prefer a quiet visit, go outside it, in the cooler months. The Himachal temple is lovely in autumn, and Maha Shivaratri is a major festival at all three. See Maha Shivaratri dates for your city.

Etiquette

At Deoghar, the crowd can be dense during the Shravan month, and local guides, called pandas, offer to arrange the rituals. They are a long tradition, but agree any gift clearly beforehand, and prefer the trust’s official counters. Dress modestly in all three temples. Rules on timing, queues and fees come from the temple authorities and are not quoted here. Please read the official websites.

Many pilgrims bring water from the Ganga to pour over the linga, in memory of the kanwar journey. If you are seeking healing for illness, please see a doctor first, since a visit to the temple is devotion and not a treatment.

Related pages

• The twelve jyotirlingas
• Nageshwar jyotirlinga, another with disputed claimants
• Bhimashankar jyotirlinga
• Mahamrityunjaya mantra
• Monday (Somvar) vrat
• Pilgrimage guides

Frequently asked questions