Nowadays, the government has realised that pilgrimage is a great way to boost the local economy. It gets selfie tourists to promote the pilgrim site on social media, generating FOMO (fear of missing out) which attracts more tourists. This new form of pilgrimage is a 21st-century phenomena, transforming the way Hinduism is experienced. Temples are becoming tourist spots. Festivals are becoming experience centres. Local priests are eager to provide customer delight. Politicians are figuring out ways to make profit by ensuring their people get lucrative contracts for hotels and restaurants. No one, not even the government, is bothered about garbage and waste management, which is in a way typical of Hinduism that has traditionally seen sanitation work as ‘impure’ even when it is highly profitable.

In Vedic times, the gods would be invoked, and they would travel to the site of the yagya-shala. They would arrive in their chariots to receive the praise and offerings given by the Vedic priests. This was the norm around 1000 BCE, i.e., 3,000 years ago. There was no concept of pilgrimage then.

However, from around 2,000 years ago, we observe a shift in belief systems. More and more people began to travel to places associated with the presence of the gods. Some of these places were natural wonders—such as the confluence of rivers—while others were sites where temples were built, indicating the presence of a deity on Earth. The earliest mention of pilgrimages in India is found in the Mahabharata. Almost every chapter speaks of the tirtha yatra undertaken by the Pandavas during their exile, when they bathe in various sacred locations to rid themselves of demerit and gain spiritual merit.

The Dharma Shastra literature, written between 300 BCE and 300 CE, does not appreciate pilgrimage sites or mention pilgrimages favourably. It even looks down upon temple priests. This suggests a historical tension between the temple and pilgrimage culture on one hand, and the orthodox Vedic Brahmins on the other, who did not approve of image worship.

All this changed by the 12th century—approximately 800 years ago—when long nibandhas (essays) were written on the Dharma Shastras, and lists of various pilgrimage sites began to appear. This is when we see a proliferation of Sthala Puranas and Kshetra Mahatmyas, which describe the spiritual value of visiting specific places. It is during this period that people began speaking of the Jyotirlingas, where Shiva is said to have appeared as a fiery pillar. Notably, these sites form a path through the Deccan Plateau, connecting southern India with Uttarakhand and Kashi—ancient Shaivite centres.

Around the same time, in Tantric literature, we find for the first time the story of Shiva’s wife, Sati, whose dead body was cut into 51 pieces. Different parts of her body are said to have fallen across India, giving rise to the Shakti Peethas. Her womb fell in Assam. Her tongue fell in Punjab. Her toe in Kerala. This story is not found in earlier sources. It may have been inspired by the story of Buddha’s various relics being distributed across India in 84,000 stupas.

Following the Islamic invasions, the idea of reclaiming Hindu land became significant. We find texts increasingly defining the geographical borders of Aryavarta—the land that belonged to the followers of Hindu Dharma, now seen as under threat from followers of Turka Dharma. This is when the concept of the ‘Char Dham’ emerges: Dwarka in the west, Jagannath in the east, Rameshwaram in the south, and Badrinath in the north. Incidentally, the northern tip of India is traditionally associated more with Uttarakhand than Kashmir, a point that bears significance.

This sentiment is also reflected in the Skanda Purana, which incorporates many Sthala Puranas, extolling the glory of places like Kashi, the Deccan, Konkan, and Kerala. The concept of Hindu pilgrimage sites marking the punya bhoomi (sacred land) ran parallel to the Islamic concept of the Hajj to Mecca—a holy land that every Muslim is expected to visit at least once in their lifetime.

Interestingly, the origin of pilgrimage as a structured spiritual journey may lie in Buddhism. We know that Emperor Ashoka visited several sites associated with the Buddha: his birthplace, the place of his enlightenment, his first sermon, his first miracle, and the site of his death. Other locations linked to various Buddhas, or where relics were enshrined, later became major stupas and chaitya-grihas, attracting monks and devotees from across the world. Jains too had pilgrim sites, holy mountains in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka were identified as sites where sages and kings went to fast to death.

This idea of Buddhist and Jain pilgrimage, established along ancient trade routes, may well have inspired the development of Hindu pilgrimage traditions—tirtha yatras—which similarly criss-crossed the land, contributing to both spiritual culture and the formation of a cohesive Indian identity.