Sapta Puri

सप्त पुरी

7 places in the tradition. Listed in the order tradition follows. The note at the foot of the page says how much of that order a text actually fixes.

In the traditional order

  1. 1

    Ayodhya

    Uttar Pradesh

  2. 2

    Mathura

    Uttar Pradesh

  3. 3

    Haridwar

    Uttarakhand

  4. 4

    Varanasi

    Uttar Pradesh

  5. 5

    Kanchipuram

    Tamil Nadu

  6. 6

    Ujjain

    Madhya Pradesh

  7. 7

    Dwarka

    Gujarat

Other identifications

Some places in this circuit are identified differently by different traditions or scholars. Each view is given; we do not settle it.

  • Gaya

    Identified by: Ernest Wood's 1911 translation of the Garuda Purana, which reads Gayā in the third slot.

    The other view

    The Devanagari shloka in circulation, which reads Māyā and is glossed as Haridwar. No source consulted resolves the variant.

Where this list and its order comes from

  • Purana: Garuda Purana, Chapter XVI, verse 114 (Ernest Wood translation, 1911): 'Ayodhyā, Mathurā, Gayā, Kaśī, Kañchi, Avantikā, Dwārāvatī—these seven cities should be known as the givers of liberation.' Note that the Devanagari shloka in circulation reads Māyā in the third slot, glossed as Haridwar, where this translation reads Gayā. The two readings name different cities and no source consulted resolves which is correct. wisdomlib.org · seen 2026-09-18
A note for the curious

Seven cities, not seven temples — members point at the place registry. The third slot is genuinely unsettled: the circulating Devanagari shloka reads Māyā, glossed as Haridwar, where Ernest Wood's 1911 translation reads Gayā, a different city in a different state. Both are recorded and neither is preferred.

All yatra circuits