Everyone and everything
Guruvayur
Kerala temple town named for Guru (Brihaspati) and Vayu, who installed its Krishna image; the adjacent Mammiyoor temple…
Badrinath
Badrika Ashrama · Badarikashrama
Himalayan Char Dham shrine on the Alaknanda, with the Tapt Kund hot spring below it; documented history is clear only…
Bhadrachalam
Rama temple on the Godavari built in 1674 by the tax officer Ramadasu after a tribal woman found the images in an…
Puri
Purushottama Kshetra · Jagannath Puri
Seat of Jagannath, one of the four Char Dham; the present temple was founded by Anantavarman Chodaganga in the early…
Tirumala
Tirupati · Venkata hill · Seshachalam
The seven-hilled seat of Venkateswara above Tirupati; the temple's nine-day Brahmotsavam in October and the Vaikunta…
Vaikuntha
Vishnuloka · Parama Padam · Paramapadam
Vishnu's abode, whose name is read as the place without care or flaw. Ramanuja calls it the highest station; the…
Kabisthalam
Kapisthalam
Divya Desam on the Kaveri held to be where Gajendra bathed and was freed; the Gajendra Varadha temple shows Vishnu on…
Udupi
Madhvacharya's temple town on the Karnataka coast, where eight mathas rotate charge of the Krishna shrine every two…
Ahobilam
Nine-shrine Narasimha pilgrimage centre in the Nallamala hills, held to be where the man-lion tore open the pillar and…
Alandi
Town on the Indrayani river where Dnyaneshwar took samadhi; the starting point of the Varkari palkhi procession to…
Ayodhya
Rama's birthplace on the Sarayu; pilgrims bathe in the river on Rama Navami, and the Ram Mandir enshrines the infant…
Dehu
Tukaram's home town on the Indrayani, from which his palkhi sets out each year on the Wari to Pandharpur.
Dwarka
Krishna's royal city on the Gujarat coast; the Dwarkadhish temple, a Char Dham and the 98th Divya Desam, was destroyed…
Govardhan
The hill Krishna lifted to shelter Braj; the Shrinathji image is held to have emerged from it and was first worshipped…
Kumbakonam Brahma Temple (Vedanarayana Perumal)
A Vishnu temple popularly called the Brahma temple: Vedanarayana Perumal with Vedavalli in the sanctum, Brahma flanked…
Mathura
Krishna's birthplace, where the Janmasthan complex marks Kamsa's prison; a Gupta-era temple stood here around 400 CE…
Nathdwara
The Pushtimarg town in Mewar that grew where Shrinathji's cart sank into the mud in 1672 under Maharana Raj Singh.
Pandharpur
Vithoba's town on the Bhima river, goal of the Varkari pilgrimage; worship attested by 1189, the present shrine most…
Simhachalam
Hill temple of Varaha-Narasimha, a Prahlada pilgrimage centre where the image is kept under sandal paste all year.
Srirangam
Island in the Kaveri holding the Ranganathaswamy temple — 63 hectares, 81 shrines, the largest functioning temple…
Thiruvananthapuram
Trivandrum · Ananthapuri
Capital of Travancore and of Kerala, named for Ananta, the serpent of the reclining Padmanabhaswamy; the Ananthankadu…
Thrikkakara
The Vamanamoorthy temple near Kochi, the focal shrine of Onam, where the festival flag is raised on Atham day and the…
Vrindavan
Braj · Vraja
The forest town of Krishna's childhood — the Rasa lila, Kaliya's pool, Govardhan nearby; Chaitanya's 1515 visit sought…
Yadagirigutta
Hill shrine of Narasimha in Telangana, the third of the Narasimha–Prahlada centres named with Ahobilam and Simhachalam.