Origin of the Jyotirliṅgas in the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa

The Jyotirliṅgas are twelve self-shining forms of Śiva’s liṅga (his sacred sign or form) at holy places in Bhārata. The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, a Sanskrit retelling of the life of Śrī Rāma, gives its own full account of how they began. Śiva tells this story to Śrī Rāma at Rāmeśvaram, just before Rāma crosses the ocean to Laṅkā.

The story explains how one huge liṅga came to be when brāhmaṇa ṛṣis cursed Śiva’s liṅga to fall to the earth. It tells how Brahmā came to Śiva for help when that liṅga filled the whole universe, and how Śiva cut it with his triśūla (trident) into twelve pieces, each of which became a Jyotirliṅga. The text also declares that Rāmeśvara itself is the twelfth Jyotirliṅga.

The Curse and the First Liṅga

Śiva came to a gathering of brāhmaṇa ṛṣis in a forest, perhaps in disguise, or in a form the ṛṣis did not recognise as supremely holy. The ṛṣis found fault with him and cursed his liṅga: “Fall to the earth.” Śiva’s liṅga fell to the earth and began to grow. It did not stop. It filled the earth, rose into the sky, pierced the upper worlds, and grew until it filled the whole aṇḍa-brahmāṇḍa (the egg of the universe).

Brahmā and all the devas searched for a thousand years but could find neither its top nor its bottom. Brahmā flew upward as a swan looking for the top, and Viṣṇu dug downward as a boar looking for the bottom. The endless growth of this liṅga threatened to bring akāla-pralaya, the dissolution of the universe before its proper time.

Brahmā Goes to Śiva

Brahmā, afraid, came to Śiva and told him of the danger: “Prabhu Śiva, this liṅga threatens to cause akāla-pralaya.” Śiva told him the whole story of the ṛṣis’ curse. Then he gave Brahmā his triśūla and told him to cut the liṅga with it. Brahmā objected: “How can I cut it? Only you have the power for this.” So Śiva himself took the triśūla and cut the vast liṅga into twelve pieces, which fell to the earth.

The Twelve Jyotirliṅgas

The twelve pieces that fell from the first liṅga became the twelve Jyotirliṅgas. Each is a self-manifest, self-shining Śiva-liṅga at a holy place in Bhārata. The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa names them as:

  1. Oṃkāreśvara (Madhya Pradesh)
  2. Somanātha (Gujarat; in that verse also named as Śiva himself)
  3. Tryambakeśvara (Maharashtra)
  4. Mallikārjuna (Andhra Pradesh / Telangana)
  5. Nāgeśvara (Gujarat or Uttarakhand, according to different traditions)
  6. Vaidyanātha (Jharkhand)
  7. Kāśī Viśveśvara (Vārāṇasī, Uttar Pradesh), named by Śiva himself: “Kāśī Viśveśvara, that am I”
  8. Kedāreśvara (Uttarakhand)
  9. Mahākāla (Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh)
  10. Bhīmeśvara (Maharashtra)
  11. Ghṛṣṇeśvara (Maharashtra)
  12. Gandhamādana, the hidden twelfth

The Hidden Twelfth: Gandhamādana

The twelfth Jyotirliṅga is called the Gandhamādana-liṅga or Gandhamādaneśvara. This liṅga is special. It lies on a peak of Mount Meru in the north-east (īśānya) and has been hidden from ordinary human eyes since the beginning of time. It is not in any place on earth that people can reach.

The text explains: “A śṛṅga (peak) of Mount Meru called Gandhamādana was broken off in a great storm of dissolution (pralaya-vāta) and fell into the southern ocean.” This fallen peak, the Gandhamādana śṛṅga in the southern ocean, is the twelfth Jyotirliṅga. Rāma is told that it lies to the north-east of Rāmeśvara.

Rāmeśvara as the Twelfth Jyotirliṅga

Śiva then makes a remarkable declaration. The saikata-liṅga (liṅga of sand) that Rāma set up at Rāmeśvaram will from now on be counted as the twelfth Jyotirliṅga. It will receive the full tejas (divine radiance) of the Gandhamādana-liṅga, and pūjā offered to it will bring the same results as pūjā to Gandhamādana. The reasons are:

  1. The liṅga was set up by Bhagavān Rāma himself.
  2. Śiva, in his form as Kāśī Viśvanātha, agreed to leave Kāśī and live at Rāmeśvaram, at the request of Agastya Ṛṣi.
  3. Gandhamādana lies to the north-east of Rāmeśvara, as Śiva shows Rāma.
  4. Those who come to Rāmeśvara with devotion receive the blessings of Gandhamādana through Rāmeśvara.

“From now on, people in all three worlds will call this Rāmeśvara-liṅga the twelfth jyotirliṅga.”

The Puṇya of Visiting Rāmeśvara

Śiva declares:

  • Pūjā at Rāmeśvara frees a person from brahmahatyā (the pāpa of killing a brāhmaṇa) and from all great pāpas.
  • One who takes sand from Kāśī to the Veṇī Saṅgama (at Kāśī), and then brings Gaṅgā water to Rāmeśvara for abhiṣeka (the sacred bathing of the liṅga), reaches Brahma-pada, the state of Brahman.
  • A saṅkalpa (a formal intention or vow) is needed for Gaṅgā to reach Rāmeśvaram. Without the saṅkalpa she does not flow there.
  • If someone comes without having made a saṅkalpa in this birth, it is understood that the saṅkalpa was made in an earlier birth.

Sources

  • Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Sāra Kāṇḍa (Book 1), Sarga 10