Badrinath, Garhwal

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 article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Badrinath, Garhwal

Peak of the Central Himalayan axis in Garhwal District, United Provinces, reaching to a height of 23,210 feet above the sea. From the glaciers on its sides the Bishanganga, an affluent of the Alaknanda river, and several other tributaries take their rise. On one of its shoulders, at an elevation of 10,400 feet, and on the road from Srinagar to the Mana Pass, stands a shrine of Vishnu, which also bears the name of Badrinath (30 45' N. and 79 30' E.). The original temple is said to have been built by Sankaraeharya ; but several buildings have been swept away by avalanches. The present structure is modern. It is conical in shape, and is surmounted by a small cupola covered with plates of copper and crowned with a gilded ball and spire. Below the shrine a sacred tank stands on the hill-side, supplied from a hot spring by means of a spout in the shape of a dragon's head. Pilgrims of both sexes bathe in the holy pool.

The god is daily provided with dinner, and his comfort is carefully ensured in many other ways. The vessels on which he is served are of gold and silver, and a large staff of servants attend to his wants. The chief priest, known as the Rawal, is always a Brahman of the Namburi class from Southern India. In 1896 a suit was instituted in the civil court and a scheme of management was framed, by which the Raival manages the secular affairs of the temple, subject to the control of the Raja of Tehri State. A large number of villages have been assigned for the maintenance of the temple, with a revenue demand of about Rs. 7,000. The temple is annually closed about November, when the priests remove the treasure to Joshimath for the winter, returning to Badrinath in May. Immense numbers of pilgrims annually visit Badrinath and other shrines in the hills.