India is the land of several faiths; the Indian spirituality draws millions of tourist from all over the world. The most prominent religion in India is Hinduism which has been rooted in the Vedic Period and it is one of the oldest religions of the world. India is the country where people worship the Ganga Holy River and several myths are related to this mythical River. India Pilgrimage tours comprise the tours of all faiths such as Hindu Pilgrimage Tours, Muslim Pilgrimage tours, Buddhist India Pilgrimage Tours, Jain Pilgrimage Tours, Christian Pilgrimage and Sikh Pilgrimage tours. Be it the Velankani Church of Tamil Nadu or the Char Dham Pilgrimages sites of India, India pilgrimage tours are attractions for large number of travelers and even most of the spiritualists accept Indian spiritualism to reach the salvation path.
Hindu Pilgrimage tours attract the huge numbers of the spiritualist as Hinduism is the oldest religion of India. About 83 % population of the country belongs to Hinduism. According to Saint Adi Guru Sankara Shankaracharya, the four holy dhams of Hinduism are Badrinath in the north, Rameshwaram in the south, Puri in the east and Dawarka in the west. The four Hindu holy dhams of Garhwal Himalayas are Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. Apart from these, the Hindu pilgrimage destinations in India are Allahabad, Amarnath, Ayodhya, Puri, Chidambaram, Kanyakumari, Konark, Madurai, Mahabalipuram, Mathura, Pushkar, Rishikesh, Shirdhi Sai Baba, Tirupati, Vrindavan and Varanasi. The most visited Hindu holy sites are Varanasi, Puri, Haridwar, etc. Varanasi is one of the oldest surviving cities of the world and it is located on the bank of the river Ganga.
Muslim pilgrimage centers in India are less in number. The major Muslim shrines in India are the Ajmer Sharif in Ajmer, Nizamuddin Dargah, Jama Masjid in Delhi, Tomb of Salim Christi in Fatehpur Sikri, and Haji Ali Mosque. In each town and city of India mosques are located. Ajmer Sharif is one of the holy Muslim pilgrimage sites of the world and it is here that the Dargah Sharif of Hazrat Khwaja Muinuddin Chisty is located. Haji Ali Dargah is a tomb of Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari located in middle of sea on the west coast off Worli, near Mumbai. This floating mosque can be reached only in low tide. Jama Masjid is located in old Delhi and is the largest mosque of India.Sikhism is one of the major religions of India and the Sikh pilgrimage shrines of India are the Golden Temple, Hemkund Sahib, Anandpur Sahib, Damdama Sahib, Manikaran, Poanata Sahib among others. The Sikh pilgrimage shrines which draw the spiritualists from the western world are the Golden Temple and Hemkund Sahib located at a high altitude near the Valley of Flower in Uttarakhand.
Jain Pilgrimage tours are tailored to the sites like Palitana, Ranakpur, Sravanabelagola and other Jain temples of the country. Jainism was born in India and the founder of this religion is Mahavira.
Buddhist Pilgrimage in India is a major attraction to a large number of tourists. The founder of this eastern religion, Guatam Buddha was born in ancient India at Lumbini village of Nepal. Buddha traveled far and wide in India to spread his message of four truths and eightfold paths. The Buddhist Pilgrimage sites in India are Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Rajgir, Nalanda, Sravasti, Vaishali, and Kushinagar and the famous Buddhist destinations are Ajanta and Ellora, Dharamasala, Ladakh among others.
It is said that St Thomas, one of the 12 apostles of Christ spread the first message of Christianity in the first century AD. Legend says that Thomas traveled to the Malabar Coast of India in 52 AD and he spent 12 years in India and he was pierced into death by the Indian sages in Mylapore in Madras. Later the Europeans in the 15th century led to the influx of Christianity to India. The St Thomas Church of Chennai and Velankanni Church, known as the 'Lourdes of the East' are the major Christian holy shrines in India.
