Place · Shiva temple · India
Rudranath
/ɾud̪ɾənaːt̪ʰ/
Also known as Rudranath Temple, Nilkanth Mahadev Rudranath, Rudranāth
A rock shrine set in high meadow and rhododendron forest in Garhwal, where the face of Shiva's bull form is said to have surfaced. It is the hardest of the Panch Kedar to reach, accessible only on foot over a long approach, and the image is worshipped as Nilkanth Mahadev.
- Periods
- Classical and Puranic Age, Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions, Early Modern Age, British Colonial Age, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Traditional / narrative attribution
- Location
- 30.520, 79.320
Worth knowing
The temple stands above the Vaitarani, a stream whose name carries the river the dead are said to cross, and rites for ancestors are performed here. Views from the meadow take in Nanda Devi, Trishul and Hathi Parvat.
Connections (2)
- Traveller routeGopeshwar
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.
- Site adjacencyNanda Devī pilgrimage region
The meadow at Rudranath looks out on Nanda Devi, Trishul and Hathi Parvat. Nanda Devi is herself a goddess in Garhwali and Kumaoni practice, carried through the villages every twelfth year in the Nanda Raj Jat, a procession of some two hundred and eighty kilometres on foot to the foot of her mountain. So the Shaiva geography of the five Kedars sits inside a goddess landscape that is older and more local.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Rudranath”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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