Omkareshwar is fourth in the enumeration of the twelve, and it is set on an island in a river: the Narmada divides around a hill of rock in Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh, and rejoins below it, leaving the island called Mandhata. The shrine of Omkareshwara stands on the island; a second shrine, written variously Mamleshwar, Amaleshwar or Amareshwar, stands on the south bank within sight of it. Which of the two is the jyotirlinga — or whether the two are one presence divided by a river — is not something the tradition has settled, and pilgrims resolve it in practice by visiting both. The site is also a station on the Narmada parikrama, so many who arrive here arrive on foot and keep walking.

Claims, and where they come from

• Omkareshwar is fourth in the enumeration of the twelve jyotirlingas. — Shiva Purana — Koti Rudra Samhita, ch. 1 — the dvadasha-jyotirlinga list
• The Vindhya range undertook a penance to Shiva, worshipping a linga of earth; Shiva appeared, granted what was asked, and at the request of the gods and sages assembled there remained at the place rather than departing. — Shiva Purana — The Omkareshwar account
• Two shrines are worshipped here — Omkareshwara on Mandhata island and Mamleshwar (also Amaleshwar, Amareshwar) on the south bank — and the jyotirlinga is identified with the island shrine, with the bank shrine, or with the two together, depending on whom one asks. — Living practice at Omkareshwar — The half-line of the Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotra that names this shrine is itself recited in more than one way, and the readings pull toward different answers. Recorded here as a live variation in reading and practice, not as a claim this corpus settles, and no single transliteration is quoted as authoritative
• The island is named for Mandhata, the king of the Ikshvaku line, who is said to have performed his penance here. — Local tradition at Omkareshwar — Mandhata himself is a Puranic and epic figure; the attachment of his story to this island is regional tradition rather than a claim traced here to a named verse
• The outline of the island is said to resemble the written syllable ॐ, which is offered as the reason for the shrine's name. — Popular tradition and modern guide literature — A reading available only from a map or from the air; treated here as modern popular tradition, not as a scriptural claim
• The Narmada is held to sanctify by sight where other rivers are said to require bathing, and smooth stones from its bed are worshipped across India as lingas (banalinga, Narmadeshwar). — Traditional saying and household practice — Widely repeated and visible in practice; not traced here to a named verse
• Omkareshwar lies in Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh; dams on the Narmada near the island, and road and foot bridges to it, are modern works that changed how the river and the crossing are experienced. — Administrative and engineering record — A modern, non-scriptural fact recorded here because it changes what a visitor sees

Counted among

• The Twelve Jyotirlingas — Twelve places where Shiva is worshipped not as an image but as a pillar of light with no beginning and no end.

Questions to explore

• Two shrines stand a river apart here, and the verse that names this jyotirlinga is recited in ways that point at one of them or at both. Is a pilgrim's darshan incomplete without the second?
• The Narmada is said to purify those who only look at it, where other rivers ask you to bathe. Where does that claim come from, and is it made of any other river?
• The island is read as the shape of ॐ — a reading nobody could have had before maps. Does that make it a late invention, or a late noticing?