12 Jyotirlinga history, images with name and place.
Table of Contents
1- Story of Somnath Jyotiling

Every day, every one of your part in Krishna Paksha will fade, but again in Shukla Paksha, every art of you will increase in the same order. In this way every full moon you will get full moonlight. ‘ The people of all the worlds were pleased with this boon received by the Moon.
After getting rid of the curse, Chandradev along with other gods prayed to Lord Mritunjaya that he along with Mata Parvatiji could stay here forever for the salvation of people. Lord Shiva accepted there prayer and started living here with Mother Parvati as Jyotirlinga.
The glory of thisSomnath-Jyotirlingasituated in the holy Prabhaskshetra is explained in detail in Mahabharata, Srimad Bhagwat and Skandapuranadi. One name of the moon is also Som, he did penance here, considering Lord Shiva as his lord.
2- Story of Mallikarjuna-Jyotirlinga:
3- Story of Mahakal Jyotirlinga:
In ancient times, King Chandrasen ruled in Ujjain, who was a devotee of Shiva. One day a five year old boy named Shrikar was passing by with his mother. Seeing Shiva worship of the king, he was very surprised and curious. He himself became eager to worship Shiva with the same type of materials.
When he could not find the material, he picked up a piece of stone from the path. When he came home and installed the same stone in the form of Shiva, he started worshiping it with flowers, sandalwood etc. Mother came to call for food, but she was not prepared in any way to leave Puja. In the end, Mata was afraid and picked up that piece of stone and threw it away.
A very luminous, phosphor, stunning jyotirlinga stands inside that temple. The child was overwhelmed with happiness and joy and started praising Lord Shiva. In this way Hanuman appeared at that place. They said- ‘Humans! Lord Shankar is the first among the deities to give quick results. Pleased with the devotion of this child, he has given it such a fruit, which even the biggest sages are unable to achieve through the penance of millions of births.The godly Nandagop will be born in the eighth generation of this child. In Dwaparyug, Lord Vishnu will take Krishnaavatar. Hanumanji became disturbed by saying this. While worshiping Lord Shiva by the rule at that place Srikar Gop and King Chandrasen finally went to Shivdham.
4- Story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga:
5- Story of Kedareshwar-Jyotirlinga
The great ascetic Shriner and Narayana performed hard austerities for many years to please Lord Shiva at the Shringa called Kedar of the mountain Himalayas.
He continued to chant the name Shiva, standing on one foot, without food. Lord Shankarji too became pleased with that difficult practice. He appeared directly and appeared to both those sages.
Nar and Narayan worshiped Lord Bhole Nath with a wide variety of sacred hymns and mantras, with a vision of Lord Bholenath. Lord Shiva was very pleased and asked him to ask for a boon.
Hearing this talk of Lord Shiva, both sages said to him, ‘Devadhidev Mahadev! If you are happy with us, then for the welfare of the devotees, please always establish your form here forever.
Pleased with his worship, Ganesha appeared and asked him to ask for the boon, those Brahmins said – ‘Lord! If you are happy with us, then somehow get Rishi Gautama out of this ashram. ‘ On hearing this, Ganeshji persuaded him to ask for such a bridesmaid. But he remained firm on his request.Eventually, Ganeshji was forced to accept his word. To keep the mind of his devotees, he took the form of a weak cow and started living in the field of sage Gautama. Seeing the cow grazing the crop, the sage took a straw in his hand with great softness and grabbed him for a catch. As soon as those trunks were touched, that cow fell there itself. Now there was a big cry.
All the Brahmins gathered and started denouncing the sage Gautama as a cow killer. Rishi Gautam was very surprised and saddened by this incident. Now all those Brahmins said that you should leave this ashram and go somewhere else. Staying close to the cow-killer will also cause us sin.
Being compelled, the sage Gautama started living with his wife Ahilya a curse away from there. But those Brahmins made their stay there too difficult. Then the sage Gautama prayed to those Brahmins to tell me some measure of my atonement and salvation.
Then he said- ‘Gautam! You can revolve the whole earth thrice by telling your sins everywhere to everyone. Then return and fast here for a month. After this, after doing 101 circumambulation of ‘Brahmagiri’ you will be purified, otherwise bring Gangaji here and bathe with water and worship Shiva with one crore earthly Shivalingas. After this, bathe in Gangaji again and revolve this Brahmagari 11 times. Then bathing the earthly Shivalingas with the holy water of hundred pots will save you.
According to the Brahmins’ statement, Maharishi Gautama completed all those tasks and became fully engrossed with his wife and started worshiping Lord Shiva. Pleased with this, Lord Shiva appeared and asked him to ask for a bride. Maharishi Gautam said to him- ‘Lord, this is what I want you to free me from the sin of cow slaughter.’ Lord Shiva said- ‘Gautam! You are completely sinless. The crime of cow slaughtering was fraudulently imposed on you. I want to punish the Brahmins of your ashram who have done this fraudulently. ‘
On this Maharishi Gautam said that Lord! I have received your darshan for his sake only. Now consider them as my supreme interest and do not be angry with them. Many sages and deities gathered there, approving Gautama’s talk and prayed to Lord Shiva to stay there forever. They obeyed him and located there as Trimb Jyotirlinga. Gangaji brought by Gautam ji also started to flow near there under the name Godavari. This Jyotirlinga is supposed to provide all the merits.
7- Story of Shri Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga:
Once, the demon king Ravana went to the Himalayas to do austerities to get darshan of Lord Shiva. He cut off his head one by one and started offering it to Shivalinga. Thus he cut off his nine heads and offered them there.
When he was ready to cut his tenth and final head, Lord Shiva appeared in front of him, very pleased and satisfied. Holding the hand of Ravana, who was trying to cut the head, they stopped him from doing so. He also added his nine heads as before and, being very happy, asked him to ask for a bride.
Ravana, as a groom, asked Lord Shiva for permission to take that Shivling to his capital Lanka. Lord Shiva gave him this boon but also imposed a condition with him. He said, you can take Shivling but if you keep it somewhere on the way, it will become immovable there, you will not be able to lift it again.
Ravana accepted this and picked up the Shivling and left for Lanka. On the way, he felt the need to take a brief journey en route. He held the Shivling in the hands of an aheer and went for retirement of the small scale. That Ahir felt the weight of Shivling too much and he could not handle it. Forced, he placed the Shivling on the ground.
When Ravana came back, even after trying hard, he could not lift the Shivling in any way.
Finally, after getting tired, after making a mark of his thumb on that holy Shivling, he left it there and returned to Lanka. After that the gods like Brahma, Vishnu etc. came there and worshiped that Shiva Linga. In this way, they returned to their respective dhams by reposing it there. This Jyotirlinga is known as ‘Shri Vaidyanath’.
This ShriVaidyanath-Jyotirlinga is about to give eternal fruits. It is eleven fingers high. It has a thumb-shaped girdle on top of it. It is said that this is the mark that Ravana made from his thumb. There is a law to offer water to pilgrims from far and wide. The glory of this Jyotirlinga is very famous for the cure of disease.
There was a big religious and virtuous Vaishya named Supriya. He was an exclusive devotee of Lord Shiva. He was constantly engrossed in their worship, worship and meditation. He used to do all his work by offering it to Lord Shiva. With mind, speech and deeds, he was completely immersed in Shivarchan. Due to his devotion to Shiva, a demon named Daruk lived very crudely.
He did not like this worship of Lord Shiva in any way. He used to constantly try to ensure that the worshiper of that beloved loved one. Once, Supriya was going on a boat and going somewhere.
The evil demon Daruk, seeing this opportune occasion, attacked the boat. He captured all the passengers in the boat and took him to his capital and imprisoned him. According to his routine in the Supriya jail, he started worshiping Lord Shiva.
He also began to inspire other devout travelers to Shiva devotion. When Daruk heard this news about his beloved from his servants, he became very angry and came to that prison. At that time, Supriya was sitting with both eyes closed at the feet of Lord Shiva.
Seeing this pose of that monster, scolding him in a very fierce voice said- ‘Hey wicked Vaishya! You are closing your eyes and wondering what are the fuss and conspiracies here at this time? Even after he said this, the tomb of the divine Shiva devotee Supriya was not broken. Now he got completely mad from the rarest monster anger. He immediately ordered his followers to kill Supriya and all the other prisoners. Supriya was not at all distracted and frightened by his order.
He started praying to Lord Shiva for the liberation of himself and other prisoners from the concentrated mind. He had full faith that my adorable Lord Shiva would definitely rid me of this disaster. Hearing his prayer, Lord Shankarji immediately appeared as a Jyotirlinga, situated on a shining throne in a high place in that prison.
In this way, he appeared to Supriya and also gave him his Pashupat-astra. With this weapon, after killing the demon Daruk and his assistant, Supriya went to Shivdham. This Jyotirlinga was named Nageshwar according to the order of Lord Shiva.
9- Story of Rameshwar Jyotirlinga:
According to the mythological beliefs, Lord Rama was drinking water while staying at this place that the Akashvani said that you drink water without worshiping me? Hearing this speech, Lord Shri Ram made a Shiva lingam from the sand and worshiped it and asked Lord Shiva to win the victory over Ravana.
He gave this groom to Lord Shri Ram with pleasure. Lord Shiva also accepted everyone’s request to live there as a Jyotirlinga for public welfare. Since then this Jyotirlinga sits here.
10- Story of Ghushmeshwar-Jyotirlinga:
Near the Devgiriparvat in the south, there lived an extremely fiery Taponishta Brahmin named Sudharma. His wife’s name was Sudeha. The two had a lot of mutual love. He had no trouble of any kind. But he had no child.
Astrology-calculation showed that childbirth cannot be born from Sudeha’s womb. Sudeha was very keen on children. He urges Sudharma to remarry to his younger sister.
At first Sudharma did not think about this. But in the end, he had to bow to the wife’s insistence. They could not defer his request. He married his wife’s younger sister Ghushma and brought them home. Ghushma was a very gracious and virtuous woman. She was the exclusive devotee of Lord Shiva. Every day, he made one hundred and one earth shivling and worshiped him with true devotion to the heart.
By the grace of Lord Shiva, a very beautiful and healthy child was born from his womb just a few days later. The birth of the child did not cross the pleasure of both Sudeha and Ghushma. Both days were passing by very comfortably. But do not know how soon after a few days a misconception was born in Sudeha’s mind. She started thinking, I have nothing in this house. Everything belongs to Ghushma.
By now, the sprout of Sudharma’s mind had taken the form of a huge tree. Finally one day he killed Ghushma’s young son while sleeping at night. Taking his dead body, he threw it in the same pond in which Ghushma used to throw the earthly Shivling daily.
He also took control of my husband. He also has children. This idea gradually grew in his mind. Here Ghushma’s child was also growing up. Gradually he became young. He was also married.
By now, the sprout of Sudharma’s mind had taken the form of a huge tree. Finally one day he killed Ghushma’s young son while sleeping at night. Taking his dead body, he threw it in the same pond in which Ghushma used to throw the mortal Shivling daily.
Everyone came to know about this in the morning. There was a furore in the whole house. Both Sudharma and his daughter-in-law beat their heads and wept bitterly. But Ghushma, as usual, was engrossed in worshiping Lord Shiva. As if nothing has happened.
After finishing the puja, she started to leave the earthly Shivalingas in the pond. When she started returning from the pond, her beloved Lal was seen coming out of the pond. He always came and fell at the feet of Ghushma.
As if you are walking around from somewhere. At the same time, Lord Shiva also appeared there and asked Ghushma to ask for a boon. He was extremely angry with Sudeha’s ghanouni handiwork.
Ghushma folded his hands and said to Lord Shiva – ‘Prabhu! If you are happy with me, then forgive my unfortunate son. Surely he has committed a very heinous sin, but by your mercy I got my son back. Now you forgive him and God!My one more prayer is, for the welfare of the people, you should stay in this place forever. ‘ Lord Shiva accepted both of these things. Appearing as Jyotirlinga, he started living there.
He became famous here by the name of Ghushmeshwar Mahadev because Sati Shiva devotee Ghushma was adorable. The glory of Ghushmeshwar-Jyotirlinga is described in great detail in the Puranas. His philosophy is unfathomable for both people and the world.