Kedarnath

Village and sacred site (tirtha) in the
Himalayas at the headwaters of the
Mandakini River, one of the tributaries
of the Ganges. The village is named for
its presiding deity, who is the god Shiva
in his manifestation as the “Lord of
Kedar.” Shiva is present at Kedarnath in
the form of a linga, a pillar-shaped
image. The Kedarnath linga is deemed
one of the twelve jyotirlingas, a network
of sites deemed especially sacred to
Shiva. Kedarnath’s sanctity is only
matched by the difficulty in getting to it.
Its high altitude—close to 12,000 feet—
means that it is only accessible between
late April and October, a characteristic
also of Yamunotri, Gangotri, and
Badrinath, the three other major
Himalayan pilgrim sites. A trip to
Kedarnath preserves some of the difficulty formerly associated with
Himalayan pilgrimage. Pilgrims travel
the last ten miles on foot or horseback,
during which the path climbs five thousand feet. Those braving the trek must
contend with the unpredictable mountain weather, but may also be rewarded
with spectacular vistas. The temple of
Kedarnath is surrounded by mountain
meadows and shaded by mountains
capped with snow year-round.
The Kedarnath linga is a natural
ridge of stone considered to be a selfmanifestation (svayambhu) of Shiva,
and is considered to be unusually powerful. The particular shape of this linga is
tied to Kedarnath’s charter myth. One
version of this story is connected to the
five Pandava brothers, who are the protagonists in the Mahabharata, the later
of the two great Hindu epics. The
Pandavas make their final journey into
the Himalayas, searching for a vision of
Shiva. They finally see him at a distance,
but when they try to get closer, Shiva
takes the form of a bull and begins running through the snow. The bull burrows
into a snow bank. When the Pandavas
follow, they find the body of the bull in
the snow. The ridge of rock that forms
the Kedarnath linga is considered to be
the hump of this bull. The bull’s head
continues traveling over the hills, eventually stopping in Nepal, where it takes
form as Pashupatinath.
A completely different charter myth
draws on the traditional belief that Shiva
makes his home high in the mountains.
This myth identifies the Panchkedar (a
network of five Shiva shrines in the
Garhwal region) with five parts of
Shiva’s body, thus connecting the deity
with the land itself and making the land
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Kedarnath
holy. Of these five, Kedarnath is identified as Shiva’s back, Madmaheshvar
his navel, Tungnath his arm, Rudranath
his face, and Kalpeshvar his matted
locks (jata).