हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Adi 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.

Built: A group of sixteen shrines, the oldest dated by surveys to the late Gupta period (5th–8th century); founded by Adi Shankaracharya by traditionWhere: Uttarakhand (Chamoli, near Karnaprayag)Deity: Bhagwan Vishnu as Narayana (Adi Badri)30.16° N, 79.23° E
  1. c. 5th–8th century
Photo: Ms Sarah Welch · CC0

01Badri before Badri

Adi means first. The Garhwal tradition holds that pilgrims who could not reach Badrinath when snow shut the high valley took darshan of Narayana here, and that Adi Shankaracharya raised these shrines as he went up to restore the worship at Badrinath. The main temple stands on a raised platform with a pyramidal shikhara; in its sanctum is a black stone Narayana about a metre tall, holding the gada, the chakra and a lotus. Smaller shrines of Lakshmi-Narayana, Rama-Lakshmana-Sita, Ganesha, Surya, Gauri-Shankar, Hanuman and others crowd round it.

02Stones of the Himalayan Nagara

The shrines are built of dressed stone without mortar, with curvilinear Nagara towers capped by amalakas, the same family of building seen at Jageshwar and Baijnath. Surveys date seven of the shrines to the late Gupta age, between the 5th and the 8th centuries; others were added later. Three kilometres away are the ruins of Chandpur Garhi, the fort of the Panwar kings of Garhwal before they moved their seat to Srinagar.

The life of this place

  1. c. 5th–8th centuryThe oldest shrines of the group are built.
Visiting

Adi Badri is about 17 km from Karnaprayag on the Ranikhet road. The temples close for a month in winter (Paush); check with the priests before going.

Nearby

KarnaprayagStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Karnaprayag

The confluence of the Pindar with the Alaknanda, where Karna did tapas to Surya Dev. The temple of Uma Devi stands above the sangam.

NandprayagStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Nandprayag

The confluence of the Nandakini with the Alaknanda, named after King Nanda, who performed a yajna here. The Gopalji temple stands above the sangam.

RudraprayagStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Rudraprayag

The confluence of the Mandakini, coming down from Kedarnath, with the Alaknanda. Here Devarshi Narada did tapas and Bhagwan Shiva taught him music; here the roads to Kedarnath and Badrinath part.

Dhari Devi Temple, KaliyasaurRebuilt
Independent Bharat

Dhari Devi Temple, Kaliyasaur

The guardian Devi of Garhwal, whose upper half is worshipped on the Alaknanda between Srinagar and Rudraprayag and whose lower half at Kalimath. Her murti was moved on 16 June 2013 for a hydro project, the evening before the Kedarnath flood.