India

Bhramaramba Ammavari Shakti Peetham Temple, Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh

Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh, India

High in the forested Nallamala Hills above the Krishna river, Srisailam holds something found nowhere else: a Maha Shakti Peetha and a Jyotirlinga together....

Biraja Temple, Jajpur, Odisha

Jajpur, Odisha, India

At Jajpur in Odisha, Maa Biraja marks where, by tradition, the navel of Sati fell — making the town Viraja Kshetra and the temple Nabhi Gaya, a place for ancestral rites...

Bomdila Monastery, Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh

Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh, India

High in the West Kameng hills of Arunachal Pradesh, Bomdila Monastery is a Gelugpa Buddhist centre built as a faithful replica of the Tsona Gontse monastery of southern...

Brahma Sarovar, Kurukshetra, Haryana

Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

Brahma Sarovar is a vast sacred tank in Kurukshetra, Haryana, where tradition holds Brahma performed the first yajna and the universe began....

Brahma Temple, Pushkar, Rajasthan

Pushkar, Rajasthan, India

The Jagatpita Brahma Mandir in Pushkar is the most prominent of the very few temples in India dedicated to Brahma the creator....

Brahmeswara Temple, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Odisha, India

Brahmeswara Temple is a Shiva shrine of 1058 CE in Bhubaneswar, built by Queen Kolavati Devi within the dense Shaiva landscape of Ekamra Kshetra....

Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

In 1010 CE, the Chola emperor Rajaraja I completed a temple so vast that its tower rises 216 feet and its capstone weighs 80 tons....

Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi

Amkhera, Madhya Pradesh, India

The Great Stupa at Sanchi rises from a hilltop in central India—a hemisphere of stone that has held sacred meaning for over 2,300 years....

Chamundeshwari Temple, Mysore, Karnataka

Chamundipuram, Karnataka, India

Atop Chamundi Hills above Mysuru stands the temple of Chamundeshwari, a fierce form of Durga said to have slain the demon Mahishasura here....

Chandramouleshwara Temple, Hubli, Karnataka

Hubli, Karnataka, India

At Unkal in Hubballi, the Chandramauleshwara Temple is a Kalyana Chalukya Shiva shrine with a rare four-faced linga and doors on all four sides....

Chati Patshahi Gurudwara, Srinagar, Kashmir

Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Gurudwara Chati Patshahi in Srinagar marks the 1620 visit of Guru Hargobind, the sixth Sikh Guru, to Kashmir....

Chemrey Gompa, Ladakh

Chemre, Ladakh, India

Chemrey Gompa rises on a hill above its village about 40 km east of Leh, a Drukpa Kagyu monastery founded in 1664 and dedicated to King Sengge Namgyal....

Chengannur Mahadeva Temple, Chengannur, Kerala

Chengannur, Kerala, India

Chengannur Mahadeva Temple, among Kerala's oldest, enshrines Shiva and Parvati facing each other in one complex....

Chennakeshava Temple, Somanathapur, Karnataka

Bevinahalli, Karnataka, India

The Chennakeshava Temple at Somanathapura, consecrated in 1258 CE, is the most complete surviving Hoysala temple, a three-shrined sanctuary to Vishnu on a star-shaped...

Cheraman Juma Masjid, Kodungallur, Kerala

Sringapuram, Kerala, India

On the old Muziris coast at Kodungallur stands a mosque that Malabar Muslim tradition holds to be the first in India, founded in the Prophet's own lifetime....

Chettikulangara Bhagavathy Temple, Mavelikkara, Kerala

Chettikulangara, Kerala, India

In a village west of Mavelikkara stands one of central Kerala's great goddess temples, where Bhadrakali is honoured at dawn as Saraswati, at midday as Lakshmi, and in the...

Chintamani Temple

Theur, Maharashtra, India

Chintamani Temple at Theur is one of Maharashtra's eight Ashtavinayak shrines, where Ganesha is worshipped as Chintamani Vinayaka....

Chottanikkara Bhagavathy Temple, Chottannikkara, Kerala

Kanayannur, Kerala, India

Near Thrippunithura outside Kochi, Chottanikkara honours the goddess Rajarajeswari in three forms across the day, and the fierce Bhadrakali at its lower Keezhkavu shrine....

Dakshineswar Kali temple, Kolkata, West Bengal

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

On the Hooghly in northern Kolkata stands the temple Rani Rashmoni built after a dream of the goddess....

Danteshwari Temple, Chhattisgarh

Dondi Tahsil, Chhattisgarh, India

At the meeting of the Shankini and Dankini rivers in Dantewada stands a temple held to mark where Sati's tooth fell, one of the 52 Shakti Peethas....

Dargaah Makhdoom Husain Balkhi, Maner Sharif, Patna, India

Bihar Sharif, Bihar, India

At Maner, west of Patna, lie two dargahs: the Bari Dargah of the thirteenth-century Suhrawardi saint Makhdoom Yahya Maneri, who made the town a centre of Islamic learning,...

Dargah Hazrat Sabir e Pak Piran, Kaliyar Shareef, Uttarakhand

Piran Kaliyar, Uttarakhand, India

On the Upper Ganga Canal near Haridwar lies the dargah of Hazrat Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari, nephew of Baba Farid and founder of the Sabiriya branch of the Chishti order....

Ellora caves, Maharashtra

Khuldabad, Maharashtra, India

Over four centuries, Buddhist monks, Hindu devotees, and Jain ascetics carved 34 temples and monasteries into a basalt cliff in western India—side by side, in the same...

Gangotri Temple, Uttarakhand

Gangotri, Uttarakhand, India

Gangotri Temple stands beside the Bhagirathi river in the Garhwal Himalaya, at the place Hindu tradition holds Ganga first touched earth....

Girijatmaj Temple, Lenyadri

Lenyadri, Maharashtra, India

Girijatmaj Temple occupies Cave 7 at Lenyadri, a wider group of ancient Buddhist rock-cut spaces north of Junnar....

Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga

Verul, Maharashtra, India

Grishneshwar is the last of Shiva's twelve jyotirlingas, standing in Verul village barely a kilometre from the Ellora Caves but belonging to an entirely different order of...

Group of Monuments at Hampi

Hampi, Karnataka, India

Hampi sprawls across a boulder-strewn landscape in Karnataka, its sixteen hundred monuments testifying to the Vijayanagara Empire's golden age....

Hanuman Tok

Gangtok, Sikkim, India

High in the Himalayan state of Sikkim, at 7,200 feet, a Hindu temple marks the spot where Lord Hanuman is believed to have rested during his legendary flight bearing a...

Jagannath Vishnu Temple, Puri, Odisha

Puri (M), Odisha, India

Jagannath Temple is less a monument than a living order of worship, food, service, and pilgrimage....

Jain temples of Khajuraho

Jatkra, Madhya Pradesh, India

Rising from the eastern reaches of Khajuraho, these temples stand apart from their more famous neighbors....

Kadalekalu Ganesha Temple, Hampi, Karnataka

Part of Group of Monuments at Hampi

Hampi, Karnataka, India

On the boulder-strewn slopes of Hemakuta Hill, the Vijayanagara sculptors carved their devotion into a single massive granite boulder....

Kakatiya Rudreshwara Ramappa Temple, Telangana

Palampet, Telangana, India

Rising from the Telangana countryside on a star-shaped platform, Ramappa Temple stands as the pinnacle of Kakatiya dynasty architecture....

Kalahasteeswarar Temple, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu

Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India

The Kalahasteeswarar Temple in Kumbakonam is considered equivalent to the renowned Srikalahasti Temple near Tirupati, earning it the name Then Kalahasti, Southern...

Kalpeshwar temple, Uttarakhand

Urgam, Uttarakhand, India

Kalpeshwar is the fifth and final shrine of the Panch Kedar, a small stone temple built into a cave in Uttarakhand's Urgam Valley where Shiva's jata, his matted locks, are...

Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Kashi Vishwanath houses one of the twelve jyotirlingas — Shiva manifest as a self-arisen pillar of light — at the heart of Varanasi, where the Ganga, the cremation ghats,...

Kedarnath Temple, Uttarakhand

Kedarnath, Uttarakhand, India

Kedarnath Temple stands at 3,583 metres in the Garhwal Himalayas, the highest of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of Uttarakhand's four Char Dham sites....

Kesgarh Sahib Gurdwara, Anandpur Sahib, Punjab

Anandpur Sahib, Punjab, India

Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur Sahib is one of the five Takhts, the principal seats of authority in Sikh tradition....

Khanqah-e-Moula

Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Khanqah-e-Moula is an active Muslim shrine and mosque in Srinagar's old city, set beside the Jhelum and associated with Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, known as Shah-e-Hamadan....

Koratty Muthy (Poovankula Matha)

Inside Saint Mary's Forane Church, Koratty

Koratty, Kerala, India

The image is treated as a devotional object inside Saint Mary's Forane Church. An exact photograph shows the image in procession, while the linked parent page identifies...

Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Odisha, India

Lingaraj is the architectural and devotional centre of Bhubaneswar, the Temple City of India....

Madhyamaheshwar Temple

Gaundar, Uttarakhand, India

Madhyamaheshwar enshrines the navel of a bull-formed Shiva at roughly 3,497 metres in the Garhwal Himalayas, reached by a multi-day trek through pine forest and river...

Mahabodhi Temple and Bodhi Tree, Bodh Gaya, Bihar

Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India

The Mahabodhi Temple marks where it happened—where a man sat down beneath a pipal tree and, after forty-nine days of meditation, achieved complete liberation from...

Mahaganpati Temple, Ranjangaon

Ranjangaon, Maharashtra, India

Mahaganpati Temple in Ranjangaon is the Ashtavinayak shrine of Ganesha in his great or expansive form....

Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga Shiva Temple, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh

Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India

Mahakaleshwar is the only dakshinamukhi (south-facing) jyotirlinga among the twelve and the sole temple in the world whose daily 04:00 aarti smears the lingam with sacred...

Mannarasala Sree Nagaraja Temple

Haripad, Kerala, India

At Mannarasala, serpent veneration is carried through a sacred grove, thousands of offered images, and a hereditary priestess....

Masjid Dastgeer Sahib, Kashmir

Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Rising from the heart of Srinagar's Khanyar quarter, Dastgeer Sahib houses a hair relic of Abdul Qadir Gilani, founder of the Qadiriyya Sufi order....

Mayureshwar Temple, Morgaon

Morgaon, Maharashtra, India

Mayureshwar Temple at Morgaon is the customary opening and closing station of Maharashtra's Ashtavinayak pilgrimage....

Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity is a living sacred place in Kolkata, West Bengal. The Mother House is not simply a museum to a famous humanitarian....