Char Dham from Delhi: Factual History of the Four Temples

[Rishikesh Tourism India]

Hinduism as a religion, holds a vast number of holy sites and temples across the country. These temples are visited by the devotees in large numbers. Some of these religious sites are turned into the popular pilgrimage circuits over time, and pilgrims around the country and even the world, come here to seek something they desire from the divine deities. One of the most famous pilgrimage tours is the Char Dham Yatra. And there is a mini-version of that tour in the state of Uttarakhand, namely Char Dham. Here are some interesting facts related to these temples of Char Dham Yatra from Delhi.

 

Badrinath

• Badrinath is the only holy site of all the other Char Dham temples to be included in the original Char Dham Yatra as well. 
• The site is the resting place of Lord Vishnu, who did penance here. The credit for instituting the site goes to the Sage Adi Shankracharya, who found a Shaligram stone image of the Lord Badrinarayan in the river Alaknanda. Initially, he placed the stone in a nearby cave, and it was the King of Garhwal in the sixteenth century who placed it into the present-day temple. 

Kedarnath 

• Kedarnath is a Shaivite site, and one of the twelve jyotirlingas spread across the Indian peninsula. 
• Legend says that Pandavas, in order to seek the retribution of the heinous deeds done by them in the events of Mahabharata, went to the Himalayas in the search of Swarg (Heaven). On their way, they encountered Lord Shiva in the form of a bull and tried to catch the bull. But the bull tried to disappear by sinking into the ground and later emerged in five different places, where Pandav built the five temples, known as Panch Kedar. 
• Some scientific findings even say that the Kedarnath temple was buried under the snow for at least 400 years.

Gangotri

• Gangotri temple is dedicated to the Shakti goddess, Ganga.
• It is believed that King Bhagirath did severe penance to please the gods in order to bring Ganga to the earth. However, the descent of Ganga from heaven endangered mankind as the water force was at such might. To save the world from the destructive fall, Lord Shiva first gathered the Ganga on his headlocks and then descended it from two different locations. The two different rivers are Bhagirathi and Alaknanda, and they meet at Devprayag to form Ganga.
• The temple was built by a Nepalese general in the late eighteenth century. However, the source of the river (Gangotri Glacier) lies at Gaumukh.

Yamunotri

• Yamunotri is the second Shaktism site in the Chhota Char Dham circuit, dedicated to the Goddess Yamuna.
• The Yamuna is said to be the daughter of Surya (the Sun) and the sister of Yama, the god of death. While Ganga is revered as the prime river to attain Moksha, Yamuna is linked with even higher authority, granting freedom from even death, the realm that is ruled by her brother Yama.
• The temple was built by Maharani Guleria of Jaipur in the 19th century, as the previous temple, built by Maharaja Pratap Shah of Garhwal, was destroyed by the natural calamities.

 

These were some listicles of the myths and facts surrounding the pilgrimage to temples of Chhota Char Dham from Delhi.