Ghrishneshwar

Ghṛṣṇeśvara — the twelfth Jyotirlinga

The last lingam on the circuit, at Ellora

Ghṛṣṇeśvara is the twelfth and final of the Jyotirlingas, the twelve shrines of Shiva at which tradition holds a lingam to have appeared of its own accord (svayam-bhūta). The shrine stands inside the Ellora cave complex in Maharashtra, on the level below the famous Kailāsa temple, enclosed by a wall of its own with an entrance from the side — pilgrims to the Jyotirlinga do not pass through the Kailāsa temple, and the two are separate institutions that happen to share a rock.

The twelfth place in the list is a position of ritual logic rather than of geography. Ellora comes last on the circuit, which runs westwards from Nāgājnā (Grishneshwar's neighbour in the list order) through Maharashtra and into Karnataka; the yātrā is described as beginning at the first and concluding here. In Maharashtra the circuit is very much a living round of pilgrimage, and the Jyotirlinga shrines are known to their devotees by their Marathi names — Grishneshwar at Ellora, Bhimashankar near Pune, Mallikarjuna at Srisailam — rather than only by the Sanskrit list.

The present structure is associated with Ahilyabai Holkar, the Holkar queen of Baroda (1725–1795), who was a substantial patron of Hindu and Jain monuments across western India, including work at Ellora. That attribution needs documentary support before it is repeated as fact: the shrine's own inscriptions, and the ASI account of the site, are the place to check it, and the current temple may stand on a much earlier foundation. The lingam itself is reported to be of black stone with a distinctive bulge, and there is a well or kund within the compound whose water is given to pilgrims.

Worship

Daily worship follows the standard Maharashtrian pattern of abhishek (ritual bathing), offerings of flowers and lamps, and recitation. The month-long kēdar observance of Mahashivaratri and the Somvati Amavasya day are the local high points; Maharashtrian Mahashivaratri gatherings at Ellora draw very large crowds, and the shrine is visited both as a Jyotirlinga and as part of the Ellora cave circuit, which is a separate, older and broader pilgrimage. Do not collapse the two.

Sources and what is still unverified

Consulted in outline: ASI material on Ellora, Majumdar's Encyclopaedia of Hindu Deities, and the district gazetteer.

Still to be checked by a named guardian: the inscription evidence for Ahilyabai Holkar's role and for any earlier structure; whether the Jyotirlinga list as now ordered has a single source or a composite one (the twelve-name list is not a Vedic one, and its textual locus should be identified); the current rules for pilgrims entering the enclosed shrine alongside the Kailāsa temple; and the local names of the festival days.