Char Dham (Four cornered holy places)

‘Chardham’ (four corners) Dvaraka, Badrinath Jagannath (Puri), and Ramesvaram. The Char Dham are often considered the most revered sites for Hindus that have to be visited in one's lifetime. The Char Dham defined by Adi Shankaracharya consists of three Vaishnaviteand one Shaivite. Those holy places are guarding the whole of India. It can be regarded as the 4 pillars of India.

In the Hindu religion, a great era cycle of time is considered which is called Chatur-yugi, just as the annual cycle of 12 months. According to it there are four yugas 1. Sat-yug,of 16 lakh years 2. Treta-Yug, of 12 lakh years 3.Dwapar-Yug of 8 lakh years 4.Kali-Yug of 4 lakh years This is a cyclic system i.e. when Kaliyug ends again Sat-Yug starts and so on. According to Hindu tradition, this time is Kal-Yug and approximately 5000 years of Kaliyuga have passed. Now, each one of the Char Dham is related to one of the Yugas. Badrinath is related to the first Yuga, the Sat-Yug, Rameshwram is related to Treta-Yug, Dwarka is related to Dwapar-Yug and Puri is related to the present Yuga, the Kali-Yug.

The first of the Dham the Badrinath became prominent when Nara Narayan, one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu did Tapasya there. At that time that place was filled with Plum trees. In the Sanskrit language they are called Badri, so the place was named Badrika-Van i.e. the forest of Plums. The particular spot where the Nar-Narayan resided was therefore called Badri-Nath i.e. the Lord of Plum forest. This all happened in the Sat-Yuga. So the Badrinath came to be known the first Dham. The second place, the Rameshwram got its importance in the Treta-Yug when Lord Rama built a Shiv-ling here and worshipped it to get the blessings of Lord Shiva. The name Rameshwram means "the God of Lord Rama". Rama himself is considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The third Dhaam Dwarka got its importance in Dwapar Yug when Lord Krishna another incarnation of Lord Vishnu, made Dwarka his residence instead of Mathura, his birthplace. (Source: All the 18 Puranas of Hindus)