Chota Char Dham

The route

What defines it

1. 01

   Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath, in that order

2. 02

   Winter seats at Kharsali, Mukhba, Ukhimath and Pandukeshwar–Jyotirmath

3. 03

   Opening dates fixed on Akshaya Tritiya, Mahashivratri and Basant Panchami

4. 04

   Kedarnath flood of 16–17 June 2013

5. 05

   51,06,346 pilgrims in 2025 (SDC Foundation, from state data)

01West to east

The order is fixed by custom: first Yamunotri, where the Yamuna leaves the snows of Bandarpunch and pilgrims cook rice tied in cloth in the hot spring of Surya Kund; then Gangotri on the Bhagirathi, where Raja Bhagiratha is said to have done tapas to bring Ganga down; then Kedarnath, the Himalayan jyotirlinga, at about 3,580 metres below the Kedar peaks; and last Badrinath on the Alaknanda. Behind Kedarnath stands the samadhi shrine of Adi Shankaracharya. The Gangotri temple in its present form was built in the early nineteenth century by the Gorkha commander Amar Singh Thapa, during the Gorkha hold on Garhwal.

02Doors that open and close

Snow closes the four shrines for six months, and each deity goes down to a winter seat: Yamuna to Kharsali, Ganga to Mukhba, Kedarnath to the Omkareshwar temple at Ukhimath, Badri-Narayan to Pandukeshwar and Jyotirmath. Yamunotri and Gangotri open on Akshaya Tritiya. Kedarnath’s opening date is announced at Ukhimath on Mahashivratri, and Badrinath’s on Basant Panchami at the old Tehri royal palace in Narendranagar, a link to the Garhwal kings who once looked after the shrine. Gangotri closes on the day of Annakut after Diwali, Kedarnath and Yamunotri on Bhai Dooj. Since 1939 Badrinath and Kedarnath have been run by the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee under a law of the United Provinces.

032013 and the crowds since

On 16 and 17 June 2013 a cloudburst and the bursting of the Chorabari lake sent a wall of water and boulders through Kedarnath. The town and the road below were destroyed and thousands of people died; the temple itself stood, shielded, pilgrims say, by a great rock that came to rest behind it and is now worshipped as Bhim Shila. The yatra recovered and then outgrew every earlier year. The SDC Foundation’s fact sheet, based on Uttarakhand government data, counts 48,01,167 pilgrims in 2024 and 51,06,346 in 2025, with a single-day peak of 30,154 at Kedarnath on 2 May 2025. Online registration is now compulsory, and the hill towns struggle with the load.

Great masters

In the texts

• Kedara Khanda of the Skanda Purana

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