Tungnath temple, Rudraprayag

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

As in 2023

Pankul Sharma, May 17, 2023: The Times of India

DEHRADUN: A study conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found that the Tungnath temple, which faces north and is located at an altitude of 12,800 feet in Rudraprayag district of Garhwal Himalayas, is tilting by around five to six degrees and the smaller structures in the complex by 10 degrees.

ASI officials told TOI that they have apprised the central government about the findings and suggested that the shrine be included as a protected monument.

"Following this," an official said, "the government has started the process of declaring it as a monument of national importance and issued a notification seeking objections from the public as a matter of procedure". The ASI will find the root cause of the damage in case it can be repaired immediately.

Tungnath temple: Officials not ruling out possibility of subsidence

Manoj Kumar Saxena, superintending archaeologist of ASI's Dehradun circle, said, "First, we will find the root cause of the damage in case it can be repaired immediately. Besides, a detailed work programme will be prepared after a thorough inspection of the shrine".

ASI officials have not ruled out the possibility of subsidence either, owing to which the alignment of the temple may shift. They said that if needed the damaged foundation stone will be replaced after consultations with experts. For now, the agency has fixed glass scales - that can measure the movement - on the walls of the main temple.

Tungnath is regarded as the world's highest Shiva temple, built by the Katyuri rulers in the 8th century. It is under the administration of the Badri Kedar Temple Committee (BKTC). "A letter has also been sent to BKTC in this regard. However, we are yet to receive a response," Saxena said.

BKTC president Ajendra Ajay told TOI, "The matter was recently discussed in a board meeting where all the stakeholders rejected ASI's proposition. We are ready to take their assistance in restoring the temple to its original form but without handing it over to them. We will inform them about our decision soon.”