| Kedarnath | |
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| Name: | Kedarnath |
| Primary deity: | Shiva as Kedarnath, 'Lord of Kedar Khand' |
| Location: | Kedarnath |
| Chota Char Dham
Gangotri • Yamunotri |
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Kedarnath Mandir (Hindi: केदारनाथ मंदिर) is one of the holiest Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and is located atop the Garhwal Himalayan range near the Mandakini river in Kedarnath, Uttarakhand in India. Due to extreme weather conditions, the temple is open only between the end of April to start of November. Here god Shiva is worshipped as Kedarnath, the 'Lord of Kedar Khand', the historical name of the region.
The temple is not directly accessible by road and has to be reached by a 14 km uphill trek from Gaurikund. The temple is believed to have been built by Adi Sankaracharya [1] and is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the holiest Hindu shrines of Shiva. The older temple existed from the times of Mahabharata, when the Pandavas are supposed to have pleased Shiva by doing penance in Kedarnath. The temple is also one of the four major sites in India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage of Northern Himalayas.
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Temple and significance
The actual temple is an impressive stone edifice of unknown date. According to the Puranas, the Pandava brothers performed penance in Kedarnath to please Lord Shiva. As a matter of fact, as one enters the main temple, the first hall contains statues of the five Pandava brothers, Lord Krishna, Nandi, the vehicle of Shiva and Virabhadra, one of the greatest guards of Shiva. An unusual feature of the temple is the head of a man carved in the triangular stone fascia of the temple. Such a head is seen carved in another temple nearby constructed on the site where the the marriage of Shiva and Parvati was held. No specific family of pujaris supervise rituals at Kedarnath, where the focus is on veneration of the stone lingam that rests in the inner sanctum of the temple.
Behind the temple is the samādhi mandir of Adi Sankara.[2]
Tamil saints Nayanars of 1st century like Sundarar and Sambanthar praised the deity in their hymns famous by the name of Tevaram.
Head Priest
The head priest (Rawal) of the Kedarnath temple belongs to the Namboothiri community, like the nearby Badrinath Temple.[3] The Rawal moves along with the diety to Ukhimath during the winter season.
References
- ^ "Kedarnath". http://www.kedarnath.org/.
- ^ "Uttarakhand government website". http://gov.ua.nic.in/uttaranchaltourism/districts/uttarkashi/Kedarnath.html. Retrieved April 2007.
- ^ http://www.travel-agents-in-india.com/cities/travel-agent-in-badrinath.html
See also
External links
- Char Dham, Official website of Uttarakhand Government
- [the http://www.badrikedar.com/, kedarnath.org, yamunotri.org and gangotri.org domains have moved to http://www.4dham.com]
- Virtual Lord Shiva Darshan and pilgrimage with videos and images
- http://www.badrikedar.com/ Official Site
- http://migranov.ru/kedarnath.php
- Photos of Kedarnath temple & other pilgrimage places nearby
- A lot of photos of Kedarnath and the road to Kedarnath in English and Russian
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