Place · river source tirtha · India
Yamunotrī
Also known as Yamunotri, Yamunotrī
The source shrine of the Yamuna at 3,293m in Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand, and the usual first stop on the Chota Char Dham yatra of the Garhwal Himalaya. The actual Yamunotri glacier lies 10 kilometres further above the temple, which Maharani Gularia of Jaipur built in the 19th century. Hot springs beside the shrine are used for cooking the ritual rice offering. In the Vedas Yamuna is the twin sister of Yama, lord of death; bathing in her water is said to spare the pilgrim an evil death. The shrine pairs with Gangotri as the twin head-sources of North India's two great rivers.
- 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
- Tradition
- River mythology and pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — The physical place or feature is identifiable; its sacred origin or association belongs to a textual or living tradition.
- Location
- 31.014, 78.460
Worth knowing
Access requires a 6 kilometre trek from Janki Chatti. The temple was built by Maharaja Pratap Shah of Tehri Garhwal in the 19th century. The Yamuna's true glacial source, the Champasar Glacier, lies above at 4,421 metres and is largely inaccessible. Divya Shila, a pillar, is worshipped before the goddess.
Connections (3)
- Its source is a tirthaGupta Kāshī
The same Gupta Kashi tradition attaches the other half of its tank water to Yamunotri, so that the hidden Kashi holds both Himalayan headwaters at once — Ganga through Gomukh and Yamuna through Yamunotri — just as Prayaga holds their confluence far below. Duplication in Garhwal is systematic rather than casual: the shrine acquires the sanctity of the sources by asserting a subterranean connection to them.
- Sacred transplantKharsali
Yamunotri at 3,290 metres worships the Yamuna as Surya's daughter and Yama's sister, and like all the Garhwal high shrines it closes for winter. Each Diwali the utsava murti is carried down to Kharsali near Janki Chatti and housed at the Shani Dev temple — Shani being her other brother — until Akshaya Tritiya, when the priests take her back uphill. The lower village is not an annexe but the winter half of the same shrine.
- Shared sacred geographyDhari Devi
The pilgrimage begins here at Yamunotri, and Dhari Devi is invoked at the foot of it as the guardian who lets the pilgrim onto the road. Her shrine sits at the Alaknandā mouth of the same Himalayan yatra circuit, and every Chota Char Dham route passes her on the way in — the Yamunotri leg is the first of the four and she is the deity said to keep the whole yatra safe. Priests at Yamunotri open the season with an offering routed to her.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Yamunotri”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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