Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga


Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga temple, also known as Baba dham and Baidyanath dham is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the most sacred abodes of Shiva, located in Parli, Maharashtra.
In Dwadasa jyothirlinga sthothram, Adi Sankaracharya has praised Vaidyanath jyothirlinga in following verses,

Poorvothare prajwalika nidhane

sada vasantham girija sametham

surasuraradhitha padapadmam

srivaidyanatham thamaham namami

This states that Vaidyanath jyotirlinga is located at Prajwalika nidhanam in the North-Eastern part of the country. Deoghar is far located in east compared to Parli, Maharashtra which is in west central part of the country today at Beed. Also Chidabhoomi indicates that, in olden days, this was a funeral place, where corpses are burnt and post-death ceremonies were performed. This place could have been a centre of tantric cults like Kapalika/Bhairava where Shiva is worshipped significantly as smasan vasin, sava bhasma bhushita.
This Śloka is true but the reference is for North East part of this Āryāvarta by which Baidyanath Dham is located in northern region.