Badrinath

Badrinath, seat of Lord Vishnu as Badrinarayan, stands at 3,133 metres in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, cradled between the Nar and Narayan mountain ranges on the banks of the Alakananda river. One of the four Himalayan Char Dham sites, it draws hundreds of thousands of devotees during its brief six-month season between May and November. The temple is one of the 108 Divya Desams — the sacred Vishnu shrines celebrated in the hymns of the Alvar saints — and is among the most ancient pilgrimage destinations in the subcontinent.

Adi Shankaracharya, the 8th-century philosopher-saint, is credited with re-establishing the temple and installing the present icon after it had been submerged in the Narada Kund for centuries. The idol of Badrinarayan — carved from black Shaligram stone — is considered svayambhu (self-manifested) and is worshipped in a meditative seated posture under a gold canopy. Behind the temple, the peak of Neelkanth (6,597 m) rises like a sentinel. The Tapt Kund hot spring immediately below the temple offers a geothermally heated ritual bath before entering the sanctum — a welcome mercy at this altitude.

Vishnu is said to have performed tapas at this spot under a badri (jujube) tree, sheltered by the goddess Lakshmi who took the form of the tree itself to protect him from the Himalayan cold. When Shiva and Parvati found him deep in meditation, they offered to leave their Himalayan abode, yielding Badrivan — the forest of badri — to Vishnu forever. The Mahabharata describes the Pandavas passing through Badrinath on their final journey to the heavens.