Place · valley town · India
Gopeshwar
/ɡoːpeːʃʋəɾ/
Also known as Gopeshwar Chamoli, Gopinath Temple Gopeshwar, Gopeshvar
The administrative town of Chamoli district and the base for the approach to Rudranath, whose priestly custom belongs here rather than to the Kedarnath establishment. Its own Gopinath temple is a substantial early stone shrine, making Gopeshwar a Shaiva centre in its own right rather than only a trailhead.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Patron dynasty
- Katyuri
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 30.400, 79.330
Worth knowing
The temple courtyard holds a large iron trident bearing inscriptions in early Nagari, long a subject of epigraphic interest. The town was also close to the centre of the Chipko movement in the 1970s, and Chandi Prasad Bhatt's organising work was based here.
Connections (2)
- Traveller routeRudranath
Gopeshwar is the district town of Chamoli and the base for the approach to Rudranath, the hardest of the five Kedars to reach; the shrine's priestly custom belongs here rather than to the Kedarnath establishment. Gopeshwar's own Gopinath temple holds a famous iron trident with early inscriptions on it, which makes the town a Shaiva centre in its own right and not merely a road-head.
- Patronage networkRamman, Saloor Dungra
Ramman is held at Saloor Dungra in Chamoli district, of which Gopeshwar is the headquarters, and the whole apparatus is village property: particular masks belong to particular families, particular castes drum, and the Bhumiyal Devata is housed for the year in the home of a villager chosen by rotation. UNESCO listed the practice of two villages rather than a region in 2009, precisely because none of it is transferable.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Gopeshwar”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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