Saiva · Jharkhand
Baidyanath Jyotirlinga, Deoghar
Baba Baidyanath (Jyotirlinga), the physician of the gods
HealthGeneral
The temple in short
- Deity
- Baba Baidyanath (Jyotirlinga), the physician of the gods
- Where
- Jharkhand · 24.49N 86.70E
- Usual hours
- 5 am – 1 pm, 4 pm – 9 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?
- Grahas
- Sevvai
- Visited for
- A Jyotirlinga and a Shakti Peetha together. The Kanwar yatra in Sravan, a hundred kilometres on foot from Sultanganj with Ganga water, is its season.
The sthala purana
Tradition, as it is told at the temple
The sthala purana has it that Ravana did penance and was given a linga to carry to Lanka, on the condition that it must not be set down on the way.
He is said to have been tricked into handing it to a cowherd, who put it on the ground, and it could not be lifted again. Ravana is said to have pressed his thumb into the stone in his anger, and the depression is pointed out on the linga.
What is recorded
Documented history
Baidyanath at Deoghar is counted as one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, and it is also held to be a Shakti Peetha, where the heart of Sati is said to have fallen.
Its standing in the Jyotirlinga list is disputed. Parli Vaijinath in Maharashtra and Baijnath in Himachal Pradesh both claim to be the Vaidyanath of the list, and each has its own tradition and its own literature for it. No authority settles the question, and all three continue to be visited on that basis.
The Shravani Mela is the largest thing that happens here. Pilgrims take Ganga water at Sultanganj in Bihar and walk about a hundred kilometres to Deoghar with it in the month of Shravan, in numbers running into millions over the month.
What there is to see
Description
The complex holds twenty-one shrines inside one wall, with the Baidyanath temple at the centre.
A panchshool, a five-pointed metal trident, stands on the spire, which is found at no other Jyotirlinga.
The spires of the Baidyanath and Parvathi shrines are tied together with a red thread, and couples tie their own thread there. The Shivaganga tank lies outside the temple wall.
The temple year
The days it is fullest
Shravan is the season, and the whole month is given over to the Kanwar route from Sultanganj; the road is a single moving column in saffron.
Maha Shivaratri and Basant Panchami are the other great days, and Mondays are heavy all year.
Getting there, and what else it is called
- Also called
- Baba Baidyanath Dham, Ravaneshwar, Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga
- Reaching it
- Deoghar is in Jharkhand. Baidyanath Dham has a station of its own and Jasidih Junction, about 7 km away, is on the main Howrah–Delhi line.
Where it is
Others within reach
Nearest first, by straight-line distance
Add what you know
Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.
- Were the hours right when you went?
- Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
- A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board
A contribution carries a name, so a reader knows whose account it came from. That is why it needs an account, and it is the only reason.
Parihaaram is traditional practice, offered for devotion and peace of mind; it is not a guaranteed cure of any condition. Temple hours change with festivals and the season, so check before travelling.