Pancha Badri
Five shrines of Shri Badrinarayan in the Alaknanda valley and its side valleys.
Badri Vishal at Badrinath is the chief; Yogadhyan Badri at Pandukeshwar is the winter seat of the utsava murti and the place where King Pandu is said to have done tapas; Bhavishya Badri, near Joshimath, is where the Lord will be worshipped when, as the Skanda Purana says, the road to Badrinath is closed in a later age; Vridha Badri is where Shri Vishnu appeared as an old man to Narada; and Adi Badri, a cluster of shrines near Karnaprayag, is held to be the earliest seat. Some lists put Dhyan Badri in the Urgam valley among the five.
Temples in this circuit
StandingBadrinath
The northern dham of the Char Dham, on the Alaknanda between the Nar and Narayan ranges, where Bhagwan Narayan sits in tapas. Adi Shankaracharya is said to have recovered the murti from the river and set it back in worship.
StandingYogadhyan Badri, Pandukeshwar
The Panch Badri temple at Pandukeshwar, where King Pandu did tapas and the Pandavas were born. In winter the utsava murti of Uddhava from Badrinath is brought here and worshipped.
StandingBhavishya Badri, Subhain
The Badri of the future, in the forest above Subhain village at about 2,744 metres. The tradition holds that when the road to Badrinath is closed by the meeting of the Nara and Narayana mountains, Badrinarayana will be worshipped here.
StandingVridha Badri, Animath
A small temple in Animath village, about 7 km from Jyotirmath, where Bhagwan Vishnu appeared to Devarshi Narada as an old man. It is one of the Sapta Badri and is often counted among the Panch Badri.
StandingAdi Badri Temples, Chamoli
A cluster of stone temples on the road from Karnaprayag to Ranikhet, counted first among the Panch Badri. Fourteen of the sixteen shrines survive and are protected by the ASI.