{"id":1234,"date":"2022-09-05T05:52:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T05:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triuttarakhand.in\/tri-turismo\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2022-09-06T06:22:07","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T06:22:07","slug":"kedarnath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triuttarakhand.in\/tri-turismo\/kedarnath\/","title":{"rendered":"Kedarnath"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kedarnath is a town in Rudraprayag district in the state of Uttarakhand in India and has gained importance because of the Kedarnath Temple. It is approximately 86 kilometres from Rudraprayag, the district headquarter. It is a Nagar panchayat in the Rudraprayag district.<\/p>\n

Kedarnath Temple<\/b>\u00a0(Sanskrit: \u0915\u0947\u0926\u093e\u0930\u0928\u093e\u0925 \u092e\u0902\u0926\u093f\u0930,\u00a0IAST:\u00a0K\u0113d\u0101ran\u0101tha Mandira<\/i>,\u00a0lit.<\/abbr>\u2009'temple of the God of the field') is a\u00a0Hindu temple\u00a0dedicated to\u00a0Shiva. The temple is located on the Garhwal\u00a0Himalayan range\u00a0near the\u00a0Mandakini river, in the state of\u00a0Uttarakhand,\u00a0India. Due to\u00a0extreme weather\u00a0conditions, the temple is open to the general public only between the months of April (Akshaya Tritiya) and November (Kartik Purnima, the autumn full moon). During the winters, the\u00a0vigraha<\/i>\u00a0(deity) of the temple is carried down to\u00a0Ukhimath\u00a0to be worshipped for the next six months. Kedarnath is seen as a homogenous form of\u00a0Shiva, the 'Lord of Kedarkhand', the historical name of the region.<\/sup><\/p>\n

The temple, at a height of 3,583\u00a0m (11,755\u00a0ft), 223\u00a0km (139\u00a0mi) from\u00a0Rishikesh, on the shores of\u00a0Mandakini river, a tributary of\u00a0Ganga, is a stone edifice of unknown date. It is not certain who built the original Kedarnath temple and when. The name \"Kedarnath\" means \"the lord of the field\": it derives from the Sanskrit words\u00a0kedara<\/i>\u00a0(\"field\") and\u00a0natha<\/i>\u00a0(\"lord\"). The text\u00a0Kashi Kedara Mahatmya<\/i>\u00a0states that it is so called because \"the crop of\u00a0liberation\" grows here.<\/sup><\/p>\n

The Kedarnath valley, along with other parts of the state of\u00a0Uttarakhand, was hit with\u00a0unprecedented flash floods\u00a0on 16 and 17 June 2013. On 16 June, at about 7:30\u00a0p.m. a landslide and mudslides occurred near Kedarnath Temple with loud peals of thunder. An enormously loud peal was heard and huge amounts of water started gushing from Chorabari Tal or Gandhi Tal down Mandakini river at about 8:30\u00a0p.m. washing everything away in its path. On 17 June 2013 at about 6:40\u00a0a.m. waters again started cascading at a huge speed from river Swaraswati and Chorabari Tal or Gandhi Tal bringing along with its flow huge amount of silt, rocks, and boulders. A huge rock got stuck behind Kedarnath Temple and protected it from the ravages of the flood. The waters gushed on both the sides of the temple destroying everything in their path. Even eyewitness observed that one large rock got carried to the rear side of Kedarnath Temple, thus causing obstruction to the debris, diverting the flow of river and debris to the sides of the temple avoiding damage. The rock which protected the temple is worshipped as the God's Rock (\u092d\u0940\u092e \u0936\u0940\u0932\u093e).<\/p>\n

The presiding image of Kedarnath in the form of\u00a0ling<\/i>am<\/i>\u00a0is of irregular shape with a pedestal 3.6\u00a0m (12\u00a0ft) in circumference and 3.6\u00a0m (12\u00a0ft) in height. There is a small pillared hall in front of the temple, that has images of\u00a0Parvati\u00a0and of the five\u00a0Pandava\u00a0princes. There are four temples around Kedarnath itself, namely- Tungnath, Rudranath, Madhyamaheshwar and Kalpeshwar which form the Panch Kedar pilgrimage sites. The first hall inside Kedarnath Temple contains statues of the five\u00a0Pandava\u00a0brothers,\u00a0Krishna,\u00a0Nandi, the vehicle of\u00a0Shiva\u00a0and\u00a0Virabhadra, one of the guards of\u00a0Shiva. Statues of\u00a0Draupadi\u00a0and other deities are also installed in the main hall.\u00a0An unusual feature of the temple is the head of a man carved in the triangular stone lingam. Such a head is seen carved in another temple nearby constructed on the site where the marriage of\u00a0Shiva\u00a0and\u00a0Parvati\u00a0was held. Adi Shankara was believed to have revived this temple, along with Badrinath and other temples of Uttarakhand; he is believed to have attained Mahasamadhi at Kedarnath. Behind the temple is the\u00a0sam\u0101dhi\u00a0mandir of\u00a0Adi Sankara.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>