INDIA: Kedarnath Temple
The sacred Kedarnath Temple lies at an
altitude of 3584 m in the snow-capped landscape of Uttarakhand, or
Uttaranchal, in north India. It is venerated as the most northern of the
twelve Jyotirlingams (the most southern one is located in Rameswaram, in
Tamil Nadu), the holiest of Hindu shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva. The
origins of the temple lie in the epic Mahabharata where Lord Shiva is
fleeing from the Pandava brothers in the guise of a bull. Reaching Kedarnath,
he sank into the ground leaving only his hump, a rock formation inside the
temple being worshipped as Shiva in his Sadashiva form. Adding emphasis to
the story is that unlike other obviously phallic Shiva shrines, the lingam
here is pyramidal, exactly like the hump on one of the millions of Brahmin
bulls wandering in towns all over India. Kedarnath is one of the five
important Shiva temples found in the Garhwal Himalayas, the source of the
two holy rivers - the Ganges and the Yamuna. The temple, constructed of
large, grey stones, is considered to be more than a thousand years old. A
statue of Nandi - the bull-god - at the entrance of the temple, welcomes
pilgrims and hikers completing the tough 14 km trek from Gaurikund, (a day`s
road travel from Haridwar). The interior walls of the temple are covered
with murals of Hindu deities and scenes from the Mahabharata. Kedarnath is
inaccessible during the winter months when it is under snow.