Kedarnath Jyotirlinga | Tirtha Bharat

Overview

Shiva in the Himalayas

Kedarnath is the most dramatic and physically demanding of all twelve Jyotirlingas, standing at an elevation of 3,583 metres in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand. The ancient stone temple, believed to have been constructed by the Pandavas and later revived by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century CE, is one of the most breathtaking sacred sites in the world.

Kedarnath is part of both the Char Dham Yatra (the four sacred abodes: Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri) and the Panch Kedar pilgrimage circuit. According to legend, the Pandavas sought Shiva here after the Kurukshetra war to atone for the sin of killing their kinsmen. Shiva, reluctant to meet them, took the form of a bull and dived into the earth, with his hump appearing at Kedarnath.

JyotirlingaChar DhamHimalayan TrekPanch Kedar

History

From Pandavas to Present

The current temple's origins are attributed to the Pandavas, with significant contributions from Adi Shankaracharya who visited and reorganised the temple's management. Shankaracharya passed away at Kedarnath in 820 CE — his samadhi (memorial) stands behind the temple. The temple is maintained by the Rawat priests of the Kedarpura village under the oversight of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee.

The temple is open only six months a year (May to November). In June 2013, catastrophic flash floods devastated the Kedarnath valley, killing thousands of pilgrims and destroying the town around the temple. The temple itself survived — a large boulder lodged behind the shrine is credited with diverting the floodwaters and saving the sanctum. This was widely seen as a miracle by devotees.

Following the 2013 disaster, the Uttarakhand government undertook major reconstruction of the infrastructure around Kedarnath. Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally supervised the reconstruction and presided over the re-energisation of the Jyotirlinga in 2021. New dharamshalas, drainage systems and the Shankaracharya Samadhi reconstruction have made Kedarnath more accessible while preserving its remote, sacred character.

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