Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

Browse By

In active religious use

This page groups sacred sites by whether their sacred status is still actively maintained. Wikipedia notes that Mircea Eliade "argues that while the concept of a sacred space is often associated with religious traditions, it is not exclusive to them," since secular societies can keep treating a place as significant too. Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a site with living religious observance apart from one preserved mainly for its history.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
Tirthas - crossing-places between the human and the divine: rivers and their confluences, sacred cities, mountain shrines and temple complexes. They are organised into several named, enumerated sets that overlap rather than nest, among them the four Dhams, the twelve Jyotirlingas, the seven sacred cities and the four Kumbh Mela sites. No single list is the list. 2
Origins
Whose Classification This Is
The enumerated sets are Puranic, not modern: the pilgrimage lists are set out in the mahatmya literature of the Puranas and elaborated in later digests, and different sectarian traditions promote different lists. 3
Directory
Category
Sacred Sites 1
Learn More
The holy places of Hinduism

This group gathers the sacred sites of Hinduism, whose sacred geography is exceptionally rich: holy rivers and their confluences, sacred cities, mountain shrines, and vast temple complexes, many the goal of pilgrimages performed for centuries. The land itself is mapped as a network of tirthas, crossing-places between the human and divine.

The browser will find the great pilgrimage cities and temples, the sacred rivers led by the Ganges, and the sites bound to particular deities and epics. The entries describe each place's deity, mythology and pilgrimage tradition, noting the sectarian traditions attached to them.

In active religious use
Filter Results25 entries

Amarnath Cave

In active religious use

Angkor Wat

In active religious use

Badrinath

In active religious use

Dwarkadhish Temple, Dwarka

In active religious use

Gangotri

In active religious use

Guruvayur

In active religious use

Jagannath Temple, Puri

In active religious use

Kashi Vishwanath Temple

In active religious use

Kedarnath

In active religious use

Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga Temple

In active religious use

Meenakshi Amman Temple

In active religious use

Mount Kailash

In active religious use

Pashupatinath

In active religious use

Prambanan

In active religious use

Ramanathaswamy Temple, Rameswaram

In active religious use

Sabarimala

In active religious use

Shri Sai Baba Temple, Shirdi

In active religious use

Siddhivinayak Temple, Mumbai

In active religious use

Somnath Temple

In active religious use

The Kathmandu Valley

In active religious use

Tirumala Tirupati Venkateswara Temple

In active religious use

Triveni Sangam and the Kumbh Mela

In active religious use

Vaishno Devi

In active religious use

Varanasi

In active religious use

Yamunotri

In active religious use
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. An Introduction to Hinduism
Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press, 1996View the Source
3. A Survey of Hinduism
Klaus K. Klostermaier, State University of New York Press, 2007View the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.