Kedarnath Temple

After the catastrophic Kurukshetra War, the five Pandava brothers were consumed by guilt. They had slain their own cousins, their beloved guru Drona, and the grandsire Bhishma. Millions lay dead. Haunted by the weight of this sin, they sought out Lord Shiva in the Himalayas, the only one who could absolve them of their cosmic guilt.

But Shiva was furious with the Pandavas for the destruction they had wrought. He did not wish to meet them. To escape, he disguised himself as a magnificent Nandi bull and hid among a herd of cattle grazing in the high mountain meadows of Garhwal. But Bhima, the strongest of the Pandavas, recognized Shiva's divine form. He straddled across two mountains and tried to grab the bull. Shiva dove headfirst into the earth to escape.

As the great bull plunged downward, Bhima managed to grab only the hump, which remained above the surface. The rest of Shiva's body appeared at four other locations — his arms at Tungnath, his face at Rudranath, his belly at Madhyamaheshwar, and his hair at Kalpeshwar. Together these five form the sacred Panch Kedar circuit.

Moved by the Pandavas' sincere repentance and the arduous journey they undertook, Shiva finally forgave them and granted them Moksha. The naturally formed rock hump that juts out of the earth inside the temple is still worshipped as the original Jyotirlinga. In 2013, catastrophic floods devastated the entire valley, destroying nearly everything — yet the ancient temple stood absolutely untouched. A massive boulder lodged itself directly behind the temple, splitting the flood waters around it like a divine shield.

Revived by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century CE. Miraculously survived the devastating 2013 Uttarakhand floods completely intact while everything around it was destroyed.

The temple opens only from Akshaya Tritiya (April/May) to Kartik Purnima (November). The deity is carried in a grand procession to Ukhimath for winter.

Built from massive grey stone slabs without mortar in Nagara style. The naturally formed triangular rock lingam inside has been worshipped for over 1,000 years.