History & Legend
At 3,583 metres, beneath eternal Himalayan snow, Kedarnath stands as one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of the four Char Dhams. After the Mahabharata war, the Pandavas sought Shiva's absolution for the sin of killing their own kin. Shiva, wishing to avoid them, transformed into a bull and hid in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Bhima managed to grab the bull's hump before it disappeared into the earth. This hump is enshrined as the Kedara Linga today. The ancient stone temple was built by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century CE on top of the original site identified by the Pandavas. The structure is built from large grey stones without mortar, in a technique that has baffled engineers for centuries.
In the catastrophic 2013 Uttarakhand floods, the entire town of Kedarnath was swept away — yet the temple stood intact, protected, devotees believe, by divine grace. A massive boulder behind the temple is credited with diverting the floodwaters. The temple is open from May to November; in winter, the deity is moved to Ukhimath.