Kedarnath has been a pilgrimage centre since ancient times. It is not certain who constucted the original Kedarnath Temple and when. A mythological account attributes the temple's construction to the legendary Pandava brothers mentioned in the Mahabharata. However, the Mahabharata does not metion any place called Kedarnath. One o fthe earliest references to Kedarnath occurs in the Skanda Purana (c. 7th-8th century), which means Kedara (Kedarnath) as the place where Lord Shiva released the holy waters of Ganga (Ganges) from his matted hair, resulting int he formation of the Ganga (Ganges) river.
According to the hagiographies based on Madhava's Sankshepa-Shankara-Vijaya, the 8th century philosopher Adi Shankaracharaya died near the Kedarnath Mountains; although other hagiographies, based on Anandagiri's Prachina-Shankara-Vijaya, state that he died at Kanchipuram. The ruins of a monument marking the purported resting place of Adi Shankaracharaya are located at Kedarnath. Kedarnath was definetly a prominent pilgrimage centre by the 12th century when it is mentioned in Kritya-kalpataru written by the Gahadavala minister Bhatta Lakshmidhara.
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That One Rainy Day....
Non-FictionBased on a real incident in India. This book tells you about the Kedarnath flash floods during 2013, read this book to find out more about Kedarnath and what happened during the incident.
