Jyotirlinga

(“linga of light”) In several different
mythic sources, the first manifestation
of the god Shiva is described as a giant
The Mahakaleshvar Temple in the city of Ujjain. This site contains one of the twelve jyotirlingas,
pillar-shaped images that mark places where the god Shiva is believed to have appeared in a shaft of light.
pillar of fire, which stretches above the
heavens and below the earth. The gods
Brahma and Vishnu try to find this pillar’s top and bottom but cannot. When
they admit their failure, the figure of
Shiva emerges from the pillar of light
and blesses them. Shiva’s devotees
(bhakta) believe that there are twelve
sites in India where this jyotirlinga came
down to earth; these twelve sites are
deemed extraordinarily holy, and at
each of them Shiva is believed to be
uniquely present. At each of these sites
the primary image is a linga, the pillarshaped image that is a symbolic form of
Shiva. Each of these lingas is considered
a different manifestation of Shiva, and
these twelve sites each take the name of
the linga that is their presiding deity.
The other eleven manifestations of
Shiva and their locations are: Somnath
and Nageshvar in the state of Gujarat;
Kedarnath in the Himalaya Mountains;
Vishvanath in the city of Benares;
Vaidyanath in the state of Bihar;
Mahakaleshvar in the central Indian
city of Ujjain; Omkareshvar in the state
of Madhya Pradesh; Bhimashankar,
Ghrneshvar, and Tryambakeshvar in
the state of Maharashtra; and
Rameshvar in the state of Tamil Nadu.