Char Dham: the four abodes
The four dhams mark the four corners of Bharat: Badrinath in the north, Puri in the east, Rameswaram in the south and Dwarka in the west.
Adi Shankaracharya is honoured as the one who bound them into a single pilgrimage, and three of the four mathas he founded stand at or near them (Jyotirmath, Govardhan at Puri, Sharada at Dwarka), with Sringeri in the south. Three are Vaishnava and Rameswaram is a Jyotirlinga where Shri Ram worshipped Mahadev, so the circuit joins Hari and Hara. A Hindu who completes the Char Dham has, in the traditional phrase, walked around Bharat.
Temples in this circuit
StandingBadrinath
The northern dham of the Char Dham, on the Alaknanda between the Nar and Narayan ranges, where Bhagwan Narayan sits in tapas. Adi Shankaracharya is said to have recovered the murti from the river and set it back in worship.
StandingShri Jagannath Temple, Puri
Purushottama Kshetra, the eastern dham of the Char Dham, where Bhagwan Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra sit in wooden forms renewed in the Navakalevara rite. The present temple rose under the Eastern Gangas and survived repeated raids because the priests carried the deities away and brought them back.
StandingRamanathaswamy Temple, Rameswaram
The southern Jyotirlinga, installed by Shri Rama on the island at the head of the setu before the war in Lanka. It is also the southern dham of the Char Dham.
RebuiltDwarkadhish Temple, Dwarka
The western dham of the Char Dham, Shri Krishna’s city on the Gomti creek, where the five-storeyed Jagat Mandir flies a flag changed several times a day.