Pilgrimage (Tirtha Yatra)
Why Hindus go on pilgrimage, the meaning of tirtha, the great pilgrimage circuits such as the Char Dham, the seven holy cities and famous journeys from Sabarimala to Pandharpur.
Pilgrimage is one of the most important practices in Hinduism. Every year, many millions of Hindus travel to sacred rivers, mountains, temples and cities to bathe, worship, receive darshan of the deity, perform rites for their ancestors and fulfil vows. India itself is often described as a sacred landscape, dense with holy places linked by the stories of the gods.
Tirtha: a crossing place
The Sanskrit word for a pilgrimage place is tirtha, meaning “ford” or “crossing place”: a place where one can cross a river. Spiritually, a tirtha is where the boundary between the human and divine worlds is thin, and where one can cross over from the cycle of rebirth towards liberation. Many tirthas are on riverbanks, and bathing is central to pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is called a tirtha yatra, “journey to a crossing place”.
Why go on pilgrimage?
- To receive the blessing (darshan) of a deity at a famous shrine.
- To wash away sins by bathing in sacred waters, especially the Ganges. See Sacred rivers.
- To fulfil a vow (vrata), for example in thanks for a recovery, a birth or success.
- To perform rites for the dead, including immersing ashes. See Funeral rites.
- For spiritual purification and as a discipline in itself.
The great circuits
The Char Dham
The four “abodes” (dhams) mark the four corners of India: Badrinath in the north, Dwarka in the west, Puri in the east and Rameswaram in the south. Their association is traditionally credited to Adi Shankara. A smaller Himalayan circuit, also called the Char Dham, links Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath in Uttarakhand.
The seven holy cities
Seven cities, the Saptapuri, are said to grant liberation: Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi (Kashi), Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwarka. See Holy cities.
Shrines of Shiva and the Goddess
Devotees of Shiva visit the twelve jyotirlingas, and devotees of the Goddess the Shakti Peethas, scattered across South Asia.
Famous pilgrimages
- Tirumala (Tirupati): the temple of Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu, in Andhra Pradesh, is among the most visited religious sites in the world. Many pilgrims offer their hair as a sign of surrender.
- Sabarimala: in the hills of Kerala, the shrine of the god Ayyappa draws millions of pilgrims, who prepare with a 41-day period of fasting, celibacy and simple living, wearing black or blue and walking barefoot.
- The Pandharpur Wari: each year, hundreds of thousands of Warkari devotees walk about 250 kilometres to Pandharpur in Maharashtra, carrying the sandals of the saints Jnaneshwar and Tukaram and singing their hymns.
- Amarnath: a Himalayan cave in Kashmir, where an ice formation is worshipped as Shiva's lingam.
- Mount Kailash: in Tibet, the abode of Shiva, sacred also to Buddhists, Jains and Bon followers. Pilgrims walk around the mountain rather than climbing it.
- Vaishno Devi: a cave shrine of the Goddess in the hills of Jammu, reached by a steep 12-kilometre path.
The greatest pilgrimage gathering of all is the Kumbh Mela.
Practices on pilgrimage
Pilgrims may walk barefoot, fast, bathe at dawn, walk around the sacred site clockwise (parikrama), make offerings, give to the poor and hire a local priest (panda) who keeps family records going back generations. Today many pilgrims travel by train, bus or plane, but walking remains a powerful act of devotion.
Sources and further reading
- Diana L. Eck, India: A Sacred Geography (Harmony, 2012).
- Knut A. Jacobsen, Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space (Routledge, 2013).