Chapters 272-314 of the Shiva Purana

Koti Rudra Samhita

The fifth of this edition's seven Samhitas: a systematic treatment of Shiva's lingams. Opens with the twelve jyotirlingams and their upalingams catalogued by name, the origin of lingam worship itself (the Daruvana pine-forest episode), and Nandikeshvara's and Atrishvara's origins, then tells the full origin story of each of the twelve jyotirlingams in turn - Somanatha, Mallikarjuna, Mahakala, Omkareshvara, Kedareshvara, Bhimashankara, Vishveshvara of Kashi, Tryambaka, Vaidyanatha, Nageshvara, Rameshvara and Ghushmesha - alongside devotee stories including the Mitrasaha/Kalmashapada brahma-hatya account and the hunter Gurudruha who becomes Guha. Closes with Vishnu's thousand-name hymn to Shiva and the Sudarshana chakra received in return, the full ritual procedure for Shivaratri vrata, and a philosophical section on emancipation and Shiva/Rudra jnana.

Chapter 1: Greatness of Jyotirlingams and Upalingams
Suta opens by stating that Shiva's lingams are innumerable, pervading earth, heaven and Patala wherever a devotee remembers him with devotion, then names the twelve jyotirlingams as a set and the lesser upalingam paired with each one, promising that even hearing the names destroys sin.
Chapter 2: Greatness of Shiva's Lingams
A geographic catalogue of Shiva lingams across Bharata, led by Kashi's own Avimuktaka, running through dozens of named lingams in the eastern and southern directions along the Ganga, Narmada, Koushiki, Gandaki, Phalgu and other rivers, each tagged with a brief note on what it bestows.
Chapter 3: Anasuya and Atri's Austerities
During a hundred-year drought, the sage Atri immerses himself in unbroken meditation on Shiva while his wife Anasuya alone remains to serve him, her devotion judged by watching gods and rivers to exceed even his austerities - drawing Ganga herself to stay and help once the tale of her service is told.
Chapter 4: The Greatness of Atrishvara
When Atri asks for water, Anasuya finds Ganga willing to fill a hand-sized pit on the spot; her husband's disbelief forces her to bring him to see it directly, and her year's accumulated merit - given freely to Ganga in exchange for the river's permanent presence - prompts Shiva himself to manifest and remain there as Atrishvara.
Chapter 5: Death of the Brahmani and Nandikeshvara
A traveling brahmana, carrying his dead mother's ashes toward Kashi, overhears a remarkable overnight conversation between a wronged cow and her injured calf debating the ethics of revenge through karma - and witnesses the cow's vow play out exactly as threatened the next morning, discovering a tirtha along the way that cleanses even the sin of killing a brahmana.
Chapter 6: The Brahmani Goes to Heaven
Following the purified cow to its tirtha, the traveler meets Ganga herself in disguise, who reveals that this very spot - and this very day, the auspicious saptami of Vaishakha - is exactly suited to free his mother's spirit; flinging half her ashes there transforms her instantly into a radiant being bound for heaven and ultimately Shiva's world.
Chapter 7: Greatness of Nandikeshvara
The widowed brahmani Rishika, performing austerities for Shiva after resisting an asura's attempted seduction and watching Shiva reduce him to ashes, asks only for eternal devotion and Shiva's permanent presence at the spot - which Ganga then joins by pledging an annual visit on that same saptami in Vaishakha, explaining the river's recurring presence at Nandikesha.
Chapter 8: Greatness of Mahabala
Suta turns to the lingams of the western direction, centred on Gokarna, whose Mahabala lingam - established there by Ravana's own austerities - is surrounded by every category of deity keeping watch at its four gates and changes colour across the four yugas, powerful enough that worshipping it on Magha's dark-fortnight chaturdashi grants emancipation even to sinners.
Chapter 9: The Chandali's Good Destination
A brahmana widow's descent into illicit sexual conduct, intoxicated flesh-eating and an accidental calf-killing earns her rebirth as a blind, leprous, destitute chandali - until a scrap of bilva leaf thrown away in disgust lands on a hidden lingam on Shivaratri night, and her unwitting all-night vigil there secures her an unexpected place among Shiva's own attendants.
Chapter 10: The Greatness of Mahabala Shiva Lingam
King Mitrasaha, cursed into a man-eating rakshasa by his own guru over a deceitfully tainted meal and further cursed by a grieving brahmana widow after devouring her husband, cannot shake the personified sin of brahma-hatya through any ordinary remedy until sage Goutama directs him to Gokarna's Mahabala lingam, where he is finally cleansed.
Chapter 11: The Greatness of Pashupatinatha Shiva Lingam
Suta catalogues the lingams of the northern direction, led by a second Gokarna site holding the Chandrabhala lingam brought by Ravana, and running through named lingams tied to Dadhichi, the Naimisharanya rishis, and the Nepal region's own Pashupati and Muktinatha.
Chapter 12: The Nature of the Lingam
Asked why Shiva is worshipped in the form of a lingam at all, Suta tells the Daruvana story: Shiva, testing ascetics in the pine forest by appearing naked and provocative, is rashly cursed by the deluded rishis to lose the very organ they objected to - and the resulting cosmic catastrophe is resolved only when Brahma instructs them to pair it in worship with Parvati's own complementary form.
Chapter 13: Origin of Vatuka
The daitya Andhaka's own impaling and pacification gives rise to the Andhakesha lingam; from there, the chapter turns to a second Dadhichi, whose grandson Sudarshana is cursed mute for careless Shivaratri worship but redeemed through Devi's adoption - establishing the vatuka (ritual boy-attendant) tradition that gives Shiva's child-devotees ritual precedence in all worship.
Chapter 14: Origin of Somanatha Jyotirlingam
Chandra's favouritism among his twenty-seven wives earns him Daksha's curse of consuming wasting disease; only Brahma's redirection to Prabhasa and six months of Mahamrityunjaya worship restore him, with Shiva granting the moon its permanent monthly wax-and-wane cycle and remaining at the spot as Someshvara.
Chapter 15: Description of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlingam
After his permanent, embittered departure for Mount Krouncha (already told in the Kumara Khanda), Kartikeya refuses every appeal from his grieving parents and the gods alike to return - so Shiva and Parvati instead visit him separately on alternating parva days, and the spot where they do becomes the Mallikarjuna jyotirlingam.
Chapter 16: Greatness of Mahakala Jyotirlingam
The boon-emboldened asura Dushana lays siege to Avanti specifically to crush its last holdouts of Vedic dharma - four devoted brahmana brothers who refuse to fight back with anything but unwavering dhyana on their parthiva lingam, which erupts into the terrifying form of Mahakala and incinerates Dushana's entire army on contact with a mere sword.
Chapter 17: Greatness of Mahakala Jyotirlingam Continued
A gopi's young son, imitating a king's elaborate Mahakala worship with an ordinary stone and ordinary ingredients, is rewarded when his destroyed makeshift shrine transforms overnight into a genuine jewelled temple - impressing a besieging army of rival kings into alliance rather than war, and earning the boy (destined to become the ancestor of Krishna's own lineage) Hanuman's personal blessing.
Chapter 18: Greatness of Omkareshvara Jyotirlingam
Stung by Narada's casual remark that mighty Meru outranks it as a deva while it does not, the proud mountain Vindhya undertakes six months of austerities at Omkara to win the power it covets - and Shiva, aware the boon could easily be misused to oppress others, grants it anyway, settling permanently at the spot in both parthiva and Pranava form.
Chapter 19: Greatness of Kedareshvara Jyotirlingam
Vishnu's twin ascetic avataras Nara and Narayana secure Shiva's permanent presence at Badari through daily worship, and the later Pandavas - seeking Shiva there to atone for the Kurukshetra war - chase him in buffalo form until only its hindquarters remain, giving Kedarnath's iconic form and its renowned promise that dying en route to it alone secures emancipation.
Chapter 20: Greatness of Bhimeshvara Jyotirlingam
Bhima, the son born of Kumbhakarna's forced union with the rakshasi Karkati, swears revenge on Vishnu for his father's death at Rama's hands and wins from Brahma a boon of unmatched strength - which he promptly uses to conquer heaven, earth and the devoted king Sudakshina of Kamarupa, imprisoning him specifically for continuing to worship Shiva.
Chapter 21: Origin and Greatness of Bhimeshvara Jyotirlingam
Discovering his imprisoned captive still secretly worshipping Shiva, the furious rakshasa Bhima hurls weapon after weapon at the king's parthiva lingam, each one shattered harmlessly until the sword's actual contact triggers Shiva's eruption as Bhimeshvara, who personally annihilates the entire rakshasa army with a single sound.
Chapter 22: Rudra's Arrival in Kashi
A cosmogonic account of Kashi's origin, prior to and beyond ordinary creation: the nirguna paramatman's self-division into Purusha and Prakriti, Vishnu's earring falling to create Manikarnika, Brahma's cosmic egg, and the city's release onto earth held up on Shiva's own trident whenever it would otherwise be destroyed at the end of a cosmic day.
Chapter 23: Greatness of Kashi-Vishveshvara Jyotirlingam
Asked by Parvati herself to explain Kashi's unique power, Shiva lays out why this single kshetra bypasses every other normal requirement for liberation - jnana, devotion, karma, caste, gender, species, even moral conduct - guaranteeing emancipation to literally any being that simply dies within its five-krosha boundary.
Chapter 24: Greatness of Tryambakeshvara and Goutama
During a hundred-year drought, the sage Goutama wins a perpetual spring of water from Varuna not for his own benefit but to feed every suffering creature and fellow rishi in the region - the first chapter in what becomes a two-part telling of the Godavari's origin through his selfless generosity.
Chapter 25: Goutama's Arrangements
Jealous rishis' wives falsely accuse Goutama's own wife of hoarding water at their expense, poisoning their husbands against him; when the deceived rishis petition Ganesha for a means to disgrace Goutama, Ganesha warns them plainly against it before reluctantly granting their request anyway.
Chapter 26: Greatness of Tryambakeshvara
Ganesha's granted boon - a feeble cow destroyed accidentally by Goutama's own gentle touch - triggers his wrongful expulsion from his own hermitage by the deceived rishis; stripped of all ritual rights and humiliated, Goutama's humble penance wins him both forgiveness from Shiva directly and, in gratitude toward his own deceivers, the gift of Ganga herself for the world.
Chapter 27: Greatness of Tryambakeshvara Continued
Ganga descends and briefly vanishes rather than reveal herself to the very rishis who deceived Goutama, until Goutama's intercession on their behalf - again citing the principle that repaying harm with good is itself purifying - wins them conditional access through further penance, establishing the Kushavarta tirtha.
Chapter 28: Greatness of Vaidyanatheshvara Jyotirlingam
The text itself flags an alternate telling of the same cow-killing episode from a different kalpa, this time ending not in gratitude but in a formal curse exiling the deceiving rishis from Shiva's dharma permanently - before turning to Ravana's own austerities at a separate site, severing nine of his own heads before Shiva relents and grants him the Vaidyanatheshvara lingam.
Chapter 29: Depredations of Rakshasas in Darukavana
Tricked by Narada into putting the gift-lingam down to relieve himself, Ravana loses it permanently to a gopa who cannot bear its weight - becoming Vaidyanatheshvara - while separately, in Darukavana, the rakshasa Daruka and his boon-empowered wife Darukaa retreat to an underwater fortress city to continue terrorising travellers unopposed by the gods' curse against them on land.
Chapter 30: Greatness of Nageshvara Jyotirlingam
Imprisoned among Daruka's captives, the devoted vaishya Supriya quietly teaches fellow prisoners to worship Shiva by whatever means they know; when the rakshasa king discovers and attacks him for it, Shiva erupts to grant Supriya the pashupata weapon and annihilate the rakshasas outright - though Parvati's intercession on her own Shakti's behalf, in the person of Darukaa, secures the rakshasa lineage's survival within strict future limits.
Chapter 31: Greatness of Rameshvara
On the shore before crossing to Lanka, Rama refuses to drink water offered to him until he has first worshipped a parthiva lingam, acknowledging to Shiva directly the uncomfortable fact that his enemy Ravana is Shiva's own favoured devotee - and receives both the promised victory and Shiva's permanent presence at the spot as Rameshvara in return.
Chapter 32: Sudeha and Sudharma
Childless and increasingly desperate despite her husband Sudharma's philosophical indifference to the question, Sudeha arranges her own younger sister's marriage to him as a second wife purely to secure an heir - and watches Ghushma's hundred-thousand-lingam devotion succeed in producing the very son Sudeha herself could never have.
Chapter 33: Origin and Greatness of Ghushmesha Jyotirlingam
Consumed by jealousy, Sudeha secretly murders her sister's own son and disposes of the body in Ghushma's sacred pond - but Ghushma's unshaken equanimity through the resulting grief, and her continued daily worship regardless, moves Shiva to resurrect the boy outright and establish his own permanent lingam, Ghushmesha, in gratitude.
Chapter 34: Vishnu Obtains Sudarshana Chakra
Unable to defeat an oppressive daitya army through his own power, Vishnu undertakes an escalating worship of Shiva near Kailasa - a thousand lotuses for a thousand names - and when Shiva tests his devotion by hiding one lotus, Vishnu's willingness to offer his own eye in its place finally wins him the Sudarshana chakra.
Chapter 35: Shiva's One Thousand Names
The full text of the Shiva-sahasranama Vishnu recited to win the Sudarshana chakra - a thousand-plus epithet hymn running from Shiva, Hara, Rudra and Sharva through hundreds more names tracing every aspect of Shiva's forms, powers, weapons and nature, closing on Sarva-sattvavalambana at the exact moment Vishnu offered his own eye.
Chapter 36: The Fruits of the One Thousand Names
Shiva reveals that the missing lotus was a deliberate test, stops Vishnu from completing the self-sacrifice, and formally gifts the Sudarshana chakra along with instructions that meditating on Shiva's form, reciting the thousand names, and holding the chakra in mind together secure victory and freedom from misery for any devotee who does the same.
Chapter 37: Shiva's Devotees
Brahma answers Narada with an exhaustive roll call of Shiva's devotees spanning every category of being - sages, gods, asuras, serpents, birds, every dynasty of kings from Manu's own sons down through Rama's and Krishna's lineages - establishing Shiva-worship as the one practice common to virtually every notable figure across the Puranic tradition.
Chapter 38: Greatness of Shivaratri
Asked directly which vow pleases Shiva most, Suta relays Shiva's own answer to Vishnu, Brahma and Shivaa: of ten lesser vratas, Shivaratri alone stands supreme, open to every person regardless of caste, gender or desire, and the chapter lays out its full night-long, four-yama ritual procedure in precise detail.
Chapter 39: Shivaratri's Udyapana
Asked specifically about the closing rite that completes fourteen years of Shivaratri observance, Suta details the elaborate mandala, golden images of Shiva and Parvati, and gifts to the presiding preceptor that formally conclude the vow and secure its full accumulated merit.
Chapter 40: Greatness of Vyadheshvara and Shivaratri
A cruel hunter, waiting in a bilva tree over a waterhole to kill passing deer, unwittingly performs the full four-yama Shivaratri worship simply by dislodging leaves and water onto a hidden lingam below each time he draws his bow - and three successive deer, each granted a pledged reprieve to say goodbye to their families, each return exactly as promised, until their collective honesty breaks the hunter's violent nature entirely.
Chapter 41: Nature of Emancipation
Suta distinguishes the four lesser forms of liberation available even through Brahma and Vishnu from the fifth and highest, kaivalya/sayujya, obtainable only through Shiva - describing Shiva's own unknowable, attributeless nature and explaining why devotion, though harder to define than jnana, is in practice the more reachable path to it.
Chapter 42: Difference between Saguna and Nirguna
Asked to clarify the relationship between Shiva, Hari, Rudra and Brahma, Suta explains that nirguna Shiva's self-manifestation as saguna Mahadeva/Rudra to settle an early dispute between Vishnu and Brahma reveals no real distinction between the formless and formed aspects - comparable to gold and an ornament made from it - with Rudra alone, unlike every other being, never dissolving back into anyone else.
Chapter 43: Nature of Jnana
In a closing philosophical discourse traced back through an unbroken chain from Shiva himself to Vishnu, Brahma, the Kumaras, Narada, Vyasa and finally Suta, the Samhita ends by explaining that the entire universe simply is Shiva, that the appearance of multiplicity is pure confusion rather than a real division, and that devotion is the practical route by which an individual soul sheds that confusion and merges permanently into Shiva at death.

Retold in our own words from Bibek Debroy's English translation of the Shiva Purana (Penguin Classics). Names, numbers and the order of events follow the source.