Baidyanath Dham
One Of The Twelve Jyotirlingas Of Shiva; Site Of The Shravani Mela · Deoghar, Jharkhand
One of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the most sacred shrines of Shiva, in the town of Deoghar in Jharkhand, and one of the great pilgrimage centres of eastern India. The main temple complex holds the lingam of Baidyanath, the lord of physicians, surrounded by about twenty smaller temples, and draws devotees from Bihar, Bengal and much further all year. Its greatest event is the Shravani Mela, in the monsoon month of Shravan, roughly July to August, when millions of pilgrims called kanwariyas, dressed in saffron, collect Ganges water at Sultanganj in Bihar and walk more than a hundred kilometres barefoot to pour it on the lingam, many carrying it without letting the vessel touch the ground. The town becomes a river of saffron and the queues run for kilometres. Basukinath, another important Shiva temple, is usually visited as part of the same pilgrimage. Outside the festival Deoghar is a busy temple town with the Trikut hills and Naulakha temple nearby. The temple is crowded, and managed by pandas, the hereditary priests.
Shivganga Mohalla, Deoghar, Deoghar, Jharkhand, 814112, India
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED; confirm before travelling. The usual pattern: opens before dawn, around four, closes for a midday break, and reopens in the afternoon until night, with a short evening closure for the shringar puja. There is no weekly closing day. During the Shravani Mela, roughly July to August, timings are extended, queues run for many hours and Shravan Mondays are the peak. THE TRAPS: arriving mid-morning into the day-tripper rush, bringing a phone or leather into the queue and being turned back, and arriving in Shravan without a room.