Char Dham & Their Legends Uttarakhand
Chardham & Their Legends - Uttarakhand
Greatest among all the Pilgrimages, way to Vaikunth is –The Char Dham Yatra.Char Dham situated on the divine lap of Himalaya surrounded by high peaks and forests on the way makes the Yatra a voyage of lifetime. Yamunotri Dham, Gangotri Dham, Shri Kedarnath & Badrinath together make the Char Dham Circuit of Uttarakhand. In search of spiritual and eternal inner peace every year flock of millions of devotees attract to the sector.
India is a country of Saints, Sadhu and numerous spiritual personalities. It is the only country which a thousand of years rich history and culture. Hinduism is the most flourished and followed religion in India and hence accordingly there are countless religious and spiritual sites dedicated to different God and Godesses, saint and spiritual gurus are present. Some of the sites are of great historical and artistically importance too. Among such variation, diversity and geographical variant dimesions Char Dham Yatra of Uttarakhand also known as Chota Char Dham holds prime place.
Table of content
Char Dhams and Their Legends
1. Yamunotri
First among the Dham and equivalent important visit of Yamunotri Ji Temple is first stop for Pilgrims. Yamunotri Dham is dedicated to Holy river Yamuna. Yamunotri is sister of Yama-lord of death. It is assumed that doing the Yamunotri Ji Temple Darshan and taking a bath in the holy water one gets save from the uncertain mishaps and untimely death. The temple of Yamunotri Ji is believed to be built by the King of Tehri Naresh Sudarshan Shah.
Legend: Legend dates back to very old mythological story that on the day of Bhai Dooj Lord Yama promised to her sister Yamuna that who so ever take a dip in the holy water of river will not be taken to Yamlok and will attain salvation.
2. Gangotri
The second among Dham but most sacred among the four Dhams Gangotri holds great importance. Gangotri to most pious river of India The Ganga. If it would said that just because of this half of country exists then it won’t be wrong. The fertile land because of which half of India feed is grace of the holy river Ganga and prime reason being called as Ma Ganga. The Gangotri Dham is dedicated to Temple of most pious, sacred and revered river of the country and even in the world. The Temple of Goddess is built by A Gurkha general Amar Singh Thapa. The river originates at the Gaumukh from Gangotri Glacier.
Legend: King Sagar performed a Ashwamedha Yagya and sent his 60000 sons along with the Horse. The horse was lost and in search of him the son reaches to Ashram of Kapil muni and disturbed the sage who was in deep meditation at that time. angry Muni opened his eye and turned all the sons into ashes. Later on Kapilmuni advise Anshuman (grandson of Sagar) started praying Goddess Ganga to come down on earth to wash away the sin & ashes and provide the salvation. Anshuman failed in his aim and then King Bhagirath his grandson performed very deep and rigorous meditation which made Ma Ganga to come down on earth and give salvation to the souls. To save the earth from the vigorous force of the river Lord Shiva tied the river in his lock and distributes the flow into different streams.
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3. Kedarnath
Shri Kedarnath Dham situated in the great Himalaya on the lap of snow covered peaks around. Kedarnath is dedicated to Mahakal Shiv. Most challenging trek of 18 kms leads to the main shrine of Bholenath. Kedarnath Temple is also among the twelve Jyotirlings. It is believed that the original temple was built by Pandavas and Adi Guru Shankracharya got the present temple constructed adjacent to the old temple in 8th century.
Legend: legend of the Temple goes in time of Mahabharta when after the war to get free from the sins of killing of their relatives and cousins in the battlefield Pandavas came to Uttarakhand in search of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva was not in mood to forgive them so easily so tried to escape from them and went to Himalya. On seeing Pandavas he became bull and dived into the ground, Bhim the strongest caught him from tail and pulled him back not ebing able to escape Lord Shiva left his hump in Shri Kedarnath and rest of the parts appeared in different areas like Arms at Tunganath, Naval at Madh Maheshwar, Face at Rudranath and Hairs at Kalpeshwar. Hence all the five places are also revered as Panch Kedar. Pandavas made the temples at all the five places.
4. Badrinath
Badrinath Dham is dedicated to Operator of the universe-Lord Shri Hari Vishnu.One among the great Char Dham of India i.e. Puri in West, Rameshwaram in South, Dwarka in West and Shri Badridham in Northern Himalya is among most important shrines dedidcated to Lord Vishnu. It is believed that Adi Guru shankracharya found an image of Lord Shri Hari Vishnu in the river and placed it in the cave nearby and made the temple.
Legend: The legend of the place dates back to time back . According to Skanda Puram Lord Vishnu performed meditation at this place. Mata Laxmi wife of Shri Hari Vishnu turned into a Badri Tree (Berry) to protect him from the nature like rain, snow and storm. Pleased from the dedication and care of Mata Laxmi Shri Hari Narayan named this place as Badrika Ashram.
Development of Route & Wide access:
Before Indo China war doing the sacred Char Dham Yatra was so difficult, time consuming, challenging and exhausting journey through foot on hills. Before that Sadhus and sages in search of high spiritual awakening and testing their limits were the common visitors but for a layman it was like giving a second thought, months of preparation of mindset and much more. After 1962 war government of India considering the border security & strengthening country’s remote connectivity started to develop the means of transportation. All this encourages the people to travel and start the Char Dham Yatra to nearest connecting places. As the technology and infra as well as superstructure developed the devotion and interest of people also developed
Know More:
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Author Bio
Mr. Vikas Sharma holds (Masters in Tourism Management from BHU, Diploma International Tourism from KUK & Yogacharya from Uttarakhand ). He has more than a decade of work and writing experience in the field of Travel & Tourism in Top shot company of India. He developed his hobby of writing and is been engaged in writing fruitful content on travel, education, spirituality and yoga.
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