01Where Pandu sat in dhyana
The Mahabharata tells how King Pandu, having killed the rishi Kindama and his wife while they were in the form of deer, renounced the throne and went with Kunti and Madri to the mountains. Garhwal holds that he lived here, that the five Pandavas were born here, and that he installed the Bhagwan in dhyana whom pilgrims still see: a life-size Vishnu seated in meditation. The village carries his name, Pandukeshwar. Beside Yogadhyan Badri stands the temple of Vasudeva, of the same build.
02Winter seat of Uddhava
When the doors of Badrinath close in November, the utsava murti of Uddhava, Shri Krishna’s friend and devotee, and the murti of Kubera come down to Pandukeshwar and are worshipped here until the doors open again in spring; the gaddi of the Rawal goes on to Jyotirmath. Copper plates of the Katyuri kings, granting land, were found in the temple and are among the oldest documents of the Garhwal Himalaya.
The life of this place
- c. 9th centuryThe stone temples of Yogadhyan Badri and Vasudeva are built; Katyuri land grants are issued.
Pandukeshwar is on the Badrinath highway, about 23 km before Badrinath and near Govindghat. Stop on the way up; in winter this is where you take darshan of Badrinath’s Uddhava.
