Deoghar (देवघर)

What makes Deoghar a temple town

Deoghar is organised around one temple and one month. Baidyanath is a Jyotirlinga and is counted a Shakti Peetha as well, which is a pairing claimed at very few places, and the complex holds twenty-one shrines around the principal one.

In Shravan the kanwar pilgrimage arrives on foot from the Ganga at Sultanganj, about a hundred kilometres away, carrying water to pour on the linga. The queue runs day and night for the month, the roads are routed for it, and the town's whole economy moves with it. Basukinath, forty kilometres on, is where the pilgrimage properly ends.