Shri Mahakaleshwar

This is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas located at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. It is believed to be swayambhoo linga. It is very difficult to estimate when this temple was built. It finds reference dating back to 5th century. The idol of Mahakaleshwar is Dakshinamurti, meaning facing south. It is an unique feature upheld by Tantri Shiva Netra tradition. Shiva Netra is a sacred dialogue between Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati. This place is revered as one of the Shakti peethas. Ujjain was formerly known as Avanti and we can find many references to it in Puranas. This is the place where poet Kalidasa has wrote his famous works. After 1234/35 A.D. the structure was rebuilt as the earlier structures were destroyed by Mughal invaders. The present temple was maintained by the Maratha kings of Gwalior.

There are number of legends connected with this temple. According to the Puranas, a ruler of Ujjain known as Chandrasena worshiped Lord Shiva. A boy named Shrikhar was attracted by the King's worship. When he tried to enter the palace he was prevented by the guards and they sent him to the banks of river Kshipra outside the city. When the kingdom was attacked by invaders, Shrikhar and priest named Vidhi prayed Lord Shiva on the banks of Kshipra river and Lord Shiva appeared in the form of Mahakala and destroyed the enemies. Lord Shiva manifested here as a Swayambhoo linga. This Jyotirlinga is maintained by Tantrik Principle.  

Till date, the custom of Bhasmabhishek is performed in this temple on early morning of every day. Bhasma (sacred ash) for abhisheka is collected from the funeral pyre of first cremated body in the day and then it is purified by mantra and sacred water of river Shipra before using for abhisheka. 

There are caves which are known as Bhartrihari caves. Sage Bhartrihari was a step brother of Raja Vikramaditya. It is believed that he performed meditation here after renouncing worldly life. 

The Kalabhairava idol in the nearby temple accepts half of any intoxicating liquid and leaves behind the other half as Prasad. 

Ujjain is one of the 7 mukti-sthalas.

Shri Shailam

This is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. The temple of Lord Mallikarjuna is on the top of Nallamala hills in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh. Its on the bank of river Krishna about 210 km south of Hyderabad. This place was known earlier as Srigiri. The Bhramaramba temple located here is one of the shaktipeethas. This is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalam. It dates back to about 1 A.D.

Lord Shiva and Pravati appeared here as Mallikarjuna and Bhramaramba. As the story goes, upon disagreement with his parents and his brother Lord Ganesh over circumambulation around earth (bhu-pradakshina), Kartikeya left for tapasya on the Krouncha mountain. Shiva and Parvati tried to reach Kartikeya to pacify him. But Kartikeya left for another mountain close by. On the request of Devas, Kartikeya stayed close by. According to the legend, Lord Shiva visits Lord Kartikeya on every Amavasya and Parvati visits him every Pournima at this place.

Parvati took avatar as Bhramaramba (bees all over her body) to kill Mahishasura. It is stated in Puranas that Lord Shiva as Mallikarjuna and Parvati as Bhramaramba obliged Vrishabha Deva by giving darshan in appreciation of his tapasya at this place. Lord Rama installed a Sahasra Linga and Pandavas installed Pancha-pandava Linga here.

Adi Shakaracharya is stated to have scripted his memorable work Shivanand Lahari at this place.

Paadal Petra Sthalams - There are 275 Shiva temples that are revered in the hymns composed by 63 Shaiva Nayanmars (known as Shaiva siddhas) in the 6-9th century. These 275 temples are considered to be the greatest among the Shiva temples. Similarly there are 108 Vishnu temples glorified by hymns. These are known as Divya Desams. These places were glorified by Vaishnav sidhantas known as Vaishnav alwars.

Somnath Temple

According to the Puranas, Somnath is the first Jyotirlinga. Somnath means Lord of Soma and temple is an eternal shrine. It is located on the southern tip of Saurashra (Gujarat). Its reference is found in vedas and Mahabharata. In older days it was believed that the water for Linga abhishek was brought from Kashi daily. This temple was a target for plunder during the Mugal invasion for a number of times. The temple has been rebuilt or renovated at least 7 times. There are still the telltale marks of the invasion and the plunder. Near this temple there is also another temple built by Maharani of Holkar. In this temple, the deities and valuables of Somnath temple were preserved to protect them from Mugal raids. Near this place and Veraval port lies Balakateertha where Lord Krishna met his end. At the triveni sangam of the rivers Hiranya, Saraswati and Kapila, the final rights of Lord Krishna were supposed to have been performed. 

The Linga at Somnath temple is a Sparsha Linga. There is a kunda known as Chandra Kunda which is believed to cure leprosy and tuberculosis. According to the Puranas, Chandra (Soma) performed severe penance to get rid of a curse. He was cursed by his father in-law – Daksha for paying more attention to Revathi than his other 26 wives. All 27 wives of Soma were daughters of Daksha. According to the curse, Chandra was to disappear completely. Lord Shiva was pleased by Soma’s penance and relieved him from the curse and granted a boon. According to this, he was to wane for 15 days and wax for 15 days i.e. he created Shukla paksha and Krishna paksha. The full moon was known as Pournima and new moon was Amavasya. Thus the Somanath Linga got its name due to the tapasya of Soma.

Jyotirlingas

Jyotirlinga represents the Lord Shiva in the form of Linga. It represents Lord Shiva in the form of radiant energy. According to Shiva Purana, Lord Shiva first manifested in the form of Jyotirlinga on the night of Ardra Nakshatra. It is believed that when a person reaches the highest level in the spiritual path, he can perceive (see) the lingam as column of fire piercing the earth and reaching great height. Jyotirlinga are explained in detail in Shiva Purana.

According to the purana, once Brahma and Vishnu had an argument over the supremacy of creation. They approached Shiva, who manifested in the form of huge pillar of light without ends i.e. jyotirlinga piercing the three worlds. Vishnu and Brahma split their ways to find the ends of this huge pillar. Brahma lied that he has found one end i.e. the top, whereas Vishnu accepted that he could not find the lower end. Shiva appeared as a second jyotirlinga and cursed Brahma that he would have no place in any ceremonies and blessed Vishnu that he would be worshiped till the end of eternity.

Jyotirlingas are the places where Shiva has appeared as Jyoti (a fiery column of light). It was believed that there were 64 Jyotirlingas. Of these 12 are considered as very auspicious and holy. These are mentioned in Dvadasha Jyotirlinga stotra available here.

Here is a list of 12 jyotirlingas.

Name of Jyotirlinga	Location
Somnath	Saurashtra, Gujarat
Mallikarjuna	Shri Shailam, Andhra Pradesh
Mahakaleshwar	Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
Omkareshwar	Mandhata, Madhya Pradesh
Kedarnath	Himalayas
Bhimashankar	Maharashtra
Kashi Vishwanath	Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
Trimbakeshwar	Nashik, Maharashtra
Vaidyanath (Vaijnath)	Parali, Maharashtra
Nageshwar	Gujarat
Rameshwar	Tamilnadu
Ghrishneshwar	Aurangabad, Maharashtra

In our succeeding articles we will try to give summary of each of the 12 Jyotirlingas.