119 sanctuaries, by region

Kashi Vishwanath stands on the Ganga's western bank in Varanasi, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva and r…

Kedarnath sits at 3,583 metres in the Garhwal Himalayas, its grey stone shikhara among the highest of the twel…

Badrinath, one of the four Char Dham and a Divya Desam revered by Sri Vaishnava tradition, occupies a narrow v…

Vaishno Devi's sanctum is a narrow limestone cave on the Trikuta hills above Katra, where three natural rock f…

Durgiana Temple deliberately mirrors the Golden Temple's architecture, a marble causeway leading across a saro…

Martand's ruined courtyard of eighty-four fluted columns, built by the Karkota emperor Lalitaditya Muktapida i…

Baijnath's Shiva temple in the Kangra valley carries a rare inscribed construction date of 1204 CE, making it …

Jageshwar's cluster of more than 124 stone shrines, set among ancient deodar cedars in the Kumaon hills, was b…

The Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, consecrated in January 2024 in the traditional Nagara idiom using pink Bansi Pahar…

Vindhyavasini's temple at Vindhyachal on the Ganga near Mirzapur anchors a Tridevi pilgrimage circuit together…

Hidimba Devi Temple in Manali is built in a wooden pagoda style found almost nowhere else among Himalayan Hind…

Chamunda Devi Temple sits on the banks of the Baner river beneath the snow-capped Dhauladhar range in the Kang…

Mansa Devi Temple crowns Bilwa Parvat above Haridwar, one of the Siddha Peethas and part of the city's Panch T…

Neelkanth Mahadev, set on a forested ridge above Rishikesh at the confluence of the Ganga's foothill valleys, …

Banke Bihari Temple in Vrindavan, completed in 1864, houses an image whose worship tradition traces to the 16t…

Prem Mandir, consecrated in 2012 by the Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat organisation, is a fully modern white-marbl…

The ruined Dashavatara Temple at Deogarh in Lalitpur district, built in the early 6th century CE, is one of th…

The Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur is the principal seat of the Nath yogi monastic order founded by the mediev…

Naina Devi occupies a ridge above the Gobind Sagar reservoir on the Sutlej river and is counted among the 51 S…

Jwalamukhi Temple is unusual among Shakti shrines for having no carved idol at all: natural jets of flammable …

The Lakshmi Narayan complex in Chamba town, founded around the 10th century by the town's legendary ruler Raja…

Bhimakali Temple at Sarahan, seat of the former Bushahr princely state, is built using kath-kuni construction,…

Swaminarayan Akshardham, completed in 2005 by the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, is a fully modern monument built …

Chhatarpur Temple, begun in 1974 under the ascetic Baba Sant Nagpal Ji and expanded continuously since, is a s…

Commissioned by the Chola emperor Rajaraja I and completed around 1010 CE, the Brihadisvara Temple is the keys…

Built by Rajendra I to commemorate his campaign to the Ganges and to found a new capital, Gangaikondacholisvar…

The smallest of the three UNESCO Great Living Chola Temples, Airavatesvara at Darasuram compensates for its mo…

The Meenakshi Amman Temple dominates Madurai's old city as both spiritual centre and urban plan, its streets l…

Set on an island in the Kaveri river, Ranganathaswamy is reckoned the largest functioning Hindu temple complex…

Ramanathaswamy Temple is best known for its corridors: the outer prakara stretches for well over a kilometre l…

Built by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman II in the early eighth century, Kailasanathar is the earliest major …

Ekambareswarar Temple is one of the Pancha Bhoota Stalas, the five great Shiva temples each associated with a …

Varadharaja Perumal Temple is Kanchipuram's principal Vaishnava shrine and one of the 108 Divya Desams, its Vi…

Standing directly on the Bay of Bengal shoreline, the Shore Temple is among the earliest structural stone temp…

Chidambaram's Thillai Nataraja Temple is unique among major Shiva shrines for enshrining the god as Nataraja, …

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple's sanctum holds one of Hinduism's most striking iconographic arrangements: an eigh…

Guruvayur is one of Kerala's most visited Krishna shrines, its low-slung copper-roofed sanctum a study in Kera…

Set on a raised mound at the exact centre of Thrissur, Vadakkunnathan Temple is a rare surviving example of Ke…

Kapaleeshwarar Temple anchors Chennai's Mylapore quarter, its present Vijayanagara-period structure a rebuildi…

Parthasarathy Temple in Triplicane is among the oldest structures in Chennai, with a Pallava-period core datin…

Jambukeswarar Temple represents water among the Pancha Bhoota Stalas, its sanctum lingam permanently seeping g…

Arunachalesvara Temple at Tiruvannamalai represents fire among the Pancha Bhoota Stalas, its theology centred …

Palani's hilltop temple is one of the six Arupadaiveedu, the principal shrines of Murugan in Tamil religious g…

Suchindram's Thanumalayan Temple is unusual for enshrining Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma jointly as a single presid…

Nellaiappar Temple in Tirunelveli pairs adjoining shrines for Shiva as Nellaiappar and Parvati as Kanthimathi,…

Ambalappuzha Sree Krishna Temple, built in the seventeenth century under the local Chembakassery kingdom, is a…

Chottanikkara Bhagavathy Temple near Kochi is known across Kerala for its belief in the goddess's therapeutic …

Commissioned by the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana in 1117 CE to commemorate his victory over the Cholas, the Che…

Built as the twin-shrined royal temple of the Hoysala capital Dorasamudra (Halebidu), this Shiva temple is ren…

The last great Hoysala temple, built in 1268 under Narasimha III, Somanathapura represents the style at its st…

The only temple at Hampi still in daily worship, Virupaksha predates the Vijayanagara empire by centuries -- i…

The most architecturally ambitious of Hampi's Vijayanagara-era temples, Vittala was never fully consecrated --…

Built around 745 CE by Queen Lokamahadevi to celebrate her husband Vikramaditya II's victory over the Pallavas…

Carved into a red sandstone escarpment above the artificial Agastya lake, Badami's four rock-cut caves were ex…

Named not for the goddess but for its proximity to a fort (durg), this 7th-8th century temple at Aihole -- the…

Set on a rocky peninsula jutting into the Arabian Sea, Murudeshwara pairs an ancient legend -- that the Atma L…

Founded in the 13th century by the philosopher-saint Madhvacharya, founder of Dvaita (dualist) Vedanta, the Ud…

The wealthiest and most-visited pilgrimage site on Earth by daily footfall, Tirumala's hilltop temple to Venka…

Perched on the Nallamala hills above a gorge of the Krishna river, Srisailam holds the rare distinction of bei…

Built in the 1530s by brothers Virupanna and Viranna, treasury officials under the Vijayanagara emperor Achyut…

Inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2021 -- the only Telangana site so recognised -- the Ramappa Temp…

Built in the 15th century under Vijayanagara patronage and set into a natural gorge in the Erramala hills, Yag…

Set atop Indrakiladri hill overlooking the Krishna river as it cuts through Vijayawada, the Kanaka Durga Templ…

Perched atop Chamundi Hill above Mysore, this temple to Chamundeshwari -- tutelary deity of the Wodeyar dynast…

Nestled where the Kumaradhara and Dhara rivers meet in the dense forests of the Western Ghats, Kukke Subramany…

Dharmasthala is India's most striking example of syncretic temple administration: a Shiva shrine hereditarily …

Gokarna's Mahabaleshwar Temple shares its founding legend with Rameswaram at the opposite end of peninsular In…

Overlooking the port city of Visakhapatnam from the forested Simhachalam hills, this temple enshrines an unusu…

Rising above the Pampa river on Ratnagiri hill, Annavaram is one of Andhra Pradesh's most-visited pilgrimage s…

Founded in the 11th century under Chola patronage, Kanipakam's Ganesha shrine is built directly over a well (k…

Built in 1163 by the Kakatiya king Rudra Deva at Hanamkonda near Warangal, this Trikutalayam (triple-shrine) t…

Built by the Eastern Ganga king Anantavarman Chodaganga in the 12th century and expanded by his successors, th…

Commissioned around 1250 CE by the Eastern Ganga ruler Narasimhadeva I, the Konark Sun Temple is conceived as …

Largely completed in the late 11th century under the Somavamshi king Jajati Keshari and expanded by the Easter…

Built in the late 10th century under the Somavamshi dynasty, the small Mukteshvara Temple is frequently cited …

Dated to the 11th century, the Rajarani Temple takes its name from the dull red-and-yellow sandstone (locally …

Built in 1058 CE under the patronage of the Somavamshi queen-mother Kolavati Devi, as recorded in a surviving …

Dated to around the 9th century under Bhauma-Kara patronage, the Hirapur Yogini temple is one of only four kno…

Built in the Eastern Ganga period as the ceremonial 'garden house' of the Jagannath cult, the Gundicha Temple …

Perched on Kumari Hills above the Rushikulya River, Tara Tarini is one of the 51 Shakti Peethas of the subcont…

Traditionally associated with the Chauhan rulers who governed the Sambalpur kingdom, the Samaleswari Temple ha…

Attributed to the 14th-century Eastern Ganga king Narasimha Deva IV, the Chandrasekhar Temple crowns Kapilash …

Founded in 1855 by the widowed zamindar Rani Rashmoni, Dakshineswar is the defining example of Bengal's navara…

Though the present structure dates only to 1809, Kalighat occupies a shrine site of much greater antiquity and…

Tarapith is one of Bengal's principal Shakti Peethas and among the most important living centres of Tantric Sh…

Built through the 17th century under the Malla kings of Bishnupur, this cluster of brick temples, including Jo…

The core brick shikhara of the Mahabodhi Temple dates to roughly the 5th or 6th century CE, but the site itsel…

Rebuilt in 1787 by the Holkar queen Ahilyabai Holkar, patron of temple reconstruction across India after succe…

Rebuilt in its present form in the 18th century under the patronage of Raja Puran Mal of Giridih over a shrine…

A foundation inscription dates the Mundeshwari Devi Temple to 635-636 CE, making it, by epigraphic evidence, o…

Five marble temples built between the 11th and 13th centuries, Dilwara is regarded as the high point of Maru-G…

Commissioned in the 15th century under merchant Dharna Shah with the patronage of Mewar's Rana Kumbha, Ranakpu…

Eklingji has served as the state deity and dynastic patron shrine of Mewar's Sisodia rulers since the site's f…

Somnath's temple history is a record of repeated destruction and rebuilding across a millennium, most famously…

Dwarka is one of the char dham, the four cardinal pilgrimage sites of Hinduism, and its Dwarkadhish temple, de…

Built under the Solanki (Chaulukya) dynasty in the 1020s, Modhera's Sun Temple is Gujarat's principal survivin…

Cave 16 at Ellora, the Kailasa Temple, is among the most audacious feats of architectural sculpture anywhere i…

Carved into basalt cliffs on an island in Mumbai harbour between roughly the 5th and 7th centuries, likely und…

Rebuilt in black basalt between 1755 and 1786 by Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, Trimbakeshwar stands near the source …

The smallest and geographically last of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines, Grishneshwar sits barely a kilometre f…

Goa's temple architecture developed a hybrid vocabulary after Portuguese colonial rule forced the relocation o…

Deshnoke's temple to Karni Mata, a 15th-century mystic venerated across the region as a form of Durga and clos…

Pushkar's Brahma Temple is among the very few active temples in India dedicated to Brahma, whose worship elsew…

Ambaji is counted among the 51 Shakti Peethas, the network of sites across the subcontinent traditionally held…

Shatrunjaya hill above Palitana holds one of the largest concentrations of temples on earth, with more than 90…

Pandharpur's temple to Vithoba, a folk form of Krishna standing with hands resting on his hips, is the spiritu…

Built in 1801 by a local contractor, Laxman Vithu Patil, and funded partly by an agriculturalist patron, Deuba…

The largest surviving temple at Khajuraho, Kandariya Mahadeva represents the zenith of Chandela-era Nagara arc…

Built under Chandela king Yashovarman and completed by his son, the Lakshmana Temple is the best-preserved and…

Omkareshwar occupies a Narmada River island whose natural contours are traditionally read as forming the Om sy…

Ujjain's Mahakaleshwar has been a major seat of Shaiva pilgrimage since antiquity, referenced in classical San…

Udayagiri is the single most important surviving group of Gupta-period rock-cut shrines, carved directly into …

Commissioned by the polymath Paramara king Bhoja in the early 11th century, the Bhojeshwar Temple at Bhojpur w…

One of the few surviving Yogini temples in India built to the tradition's distinctive circular, roofless plan,…

Rebuilt in 1565 by the Koch king Naranarayana after the destruction of an earlier temple, Kamakhya on Guwahati…

Commissioned in 1734 by Queen Ambika, consort of the Ahom king Siba Singha, the Sivadol at Sivasagar is repute…

Built in 1501 CE by the Tripura king Dhanya Manikya, the Tripura Sundari Temple at Matabari takes a distinctiv…

Carved directly into a hillside in what is now northern Tripura, likely between the 7th and 9th centuries CE t…

Established around 1500 CE under the patronage of the Jaintia kings, the Nartiang Durga Temple is counted amon…