हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Devprayag and the Raghunath Temple

Where the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda meet and the river is first called Ganga. Above the sangam is the Raghunath temple, where Shri Rama did tapas, sung by Periyalvar as one of the 108 Divya Desams.

Built: Sacred confluence; Raghunath temple of great antiquity, a Divya DesamWhere: Uttarakhand (Tehri Garhwal)Deity: Shri Rama as Raghunath; Mother Ganga30.15° N, 78.60° E
  1. 1803
Photo: Anjalikaushal1910 · CC0

01The birth of the name Ganga

Two rivers come into Devprayag from two gorges: the Bhagirathi from Gangotri, quick and roaring, and the Alaknanda from Badrinath, heavier and calmer. They meet at a point of rock below the town, and from here downstream the river is Ganga. The two ghats at the sangam are called Vashishtha Kund and Brahma Kund. The Kedara Khanda tells that the brahmana Deva Sharma did tapas here and was blessed by Shri Rama, which gave the place its name, and that Shri Rama himself did tapas at Devprayag after the war at Lanka.

02Raghunath, a Divya Desam

The Raghunath temple stands on the rock above the sangam, built of heavy stone blocks, with a tall black murti of Shri Rama. Periyalvar sang of this place as Tirukkandam Kadinagar, and so it is counted among the 108 Divya Desams, one of the very few in the north. Devprayag is also the home of the Panda families who serve as purohits at Badrinath, and many of them return here when the shrine closes for winter.

The life of this place

  1. 1803The Garhwal earthquake damages the Raghunath temple, which is repaired.
Visiting

Devprayag is about 70 km from Rishikesh on the Badrinath highway. Go down the steps to the sangam and hold the chains on the ghat; the current is strong.

Nearby

Chandrabadni Devi TempleStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Chandrabadni Devi Temple

On Chandrakoot hill between Devprayag and Tehri, the Devi has no image at all: a Shri Yantra on a stone is worshipped under a cloth, and the priest himself covers his eyes when he changes it.

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, near RishikeshStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, near Rishikesh

The forest shrine where, the temple’s tradition says, Mahadev sat in meditation after drinking the halahala poison of the Samudra Manthan. It stands where the Pankaja and Madhumati streams meet, in the hills across the Ganga from Rishikesh.

Kunjapuri Devi TempleStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Kunjapuri Devi Temple

The nearest of the Tehri Devi shrines to Rishikesh, on a hill where Garhwal holds that the upper body of Sati fell. People climb it before dawn to see the sun rise over the Himalaya.

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.