Nara, Narayana and the linga in the snows

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Namaste. Wherever you are, sit comfortably. Let your shoulders drop. One breath in, one breath out.

Today we begin a series on Kedarnath, the shrine high in the Garhwal Himalaya, at the head of the Mandakini valley in Uttarakhand. The temple stands at about three and a half thousand metres. For about six months of the year it is under snow. And yet, every summer, people walk for hours up the mountain to stand before it.

In this first sitting we will hear two things. First, what the Shiva Purana says about how Kedarnath began. Then, a much-loved story from the Garhwal hills, which we will tell as a local tradition.

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Let us go to the Shiva Purana first.

In the Kotirudra Samhita, after it lists the twelve jyotirlingas, the Purana tells the story of each one. For Kedarnath, the story begins with two sages, **Nara and Narayana**. The Purana describes them as forms of Vishnu. They lived in tapas at Badarikashrama, in the high Himalaya, the place we know today as Badrinath.

Every day, the Purana says, they shaped a linga from earth, a parthiva linga, and worshipped Shiva with devotion. They did this for a very long time, without asking for anything.

Pleased with their worship, Shiva appeared before them and offered them a boon. The Purana says that they asked for nothing for themselves. They asked that Shiva remain there, in that place, in his own form, for the good of all people who would come to worship him.

The Purana says Shiva agreed, and remained on the Kedara peak of the Himalaya as the jyotirlinga **Kedareshvara**.

**

Notice how the story is built. The sages are already great. They are forms of Vishnu himself. And still, they sit on the cold mountain and worship with a handful of earth. When they are offered a gift, they ask for something that will help people they will never meet. That is the seed of Kedarnath in the Purana: a prayer made for others.

The short hymn of the twelve jyotirlingas remembers the place in three words:

*[Human voice, recited:]* **kedāraṃ himavatpṛṣṭhe**

"Kedara, on the back of the Himalaya."

**

Now let us come to the story that people in Garhwal tell. This one is not from the Shiva Purana chapter we just heard. It is a **local tradition** of these hills, and the Garhwal temples keep it alive.

After the great war of the Mahabharata, the tradition says, the five Pandava brothers came to the Himalaya, wishing to seek Shiva's grace. Shiva, the story says, did not wish to be found easily, and took the form of a bull among the herds grazing in the high meadows. Bhima recognised him. As Bhima reached out, the bull sank into the earth. The hump remained above the ground at Kedarnath. And the hills say that other parts of that form appeared at four more places: the arms at Tungnath, the face at Rudranath, the navel at Madhyamaheshwar, and the matted hair at Kalpeshwar. Together these are called the **Panch Kedar**, the five Kedars. Many families in Nepal add that the head appeared at Pashupatinath in Kathmandu.

This is why the linga at Kedarnath is not the rounded form you see in most temples. It is an irregular, triangular rock, and devotees touch it and offer ghee to it with their own hands.

The two stories, the Purana's and the hills', are told side by side in Kedarnath. One speaks of sages praying for all people. The other speaks of devotees searching with longing. Both lead to the same rock in the same small stone temple. We do not need to choose between them.

**

A few things about the temple itself.

It is built of large, heavy grey stone slabs, fitted closely together, on a raised platform. In front of it sits a stone Nandi, facing the sanctum. Tradition holds that the Pandavas raised the first shrine here, and that Adi Shankaracharya later renewed the worship. A shrine to Adi Shankaracharya stands behind the temple.

The priests who lead the worship at Kedarnath have a lovely history. The chief priest, called the **Rawal**, comes from the Veerashaiva tradition of Karnataka, far in the south. So at the top of the northern Himalaya, worship is led by a lineage from the Deccan. India has always been joined together in ways like this.

The doors of Kedarnath open in late April or May, on a date announced each year, and close after Diwali, around Bhai Dooj. When the snow comes, the festival image of Kedarnath is carried down in a palki, a palanquin, to the Omkareshwar temple at Ukhimath, where worship continues through the winter. The temple committee announces these dates each year.

**

Let us gather what we heard.

The Shiva Purana says that Nara and Narayana worshipped a linga of earth at Badarikashrama, and when offered a boon, asked Shiva to remain in the Himalaya for the good of all. So he stayed as Kedareshvara. The hills of Garhwal add a local tradition of the Pandavas and the five Kedars, which explains the unusual shape of the linga. The temple is led by Rawals from Karnataka, and in winter the worship moves to Ukhimath.

**One thing to take with you.** Nara and Narayana, when offered anything, asked for something that would help others. This week, when you pray, add one line for someone you will never meet: a traveller, a patient, a family far away. Just one line.

In the next sitting, we walk the path up from Gaurikund, and hear about the Mandakini and the places along the way.

*[Wind. Bell. Silence.]*

**Credits (read out):** Written by the DharmikStudio team from the Shiva Purana (Kotirudra Samhita), the local tradition of Garhwal, and information published by the Shri Badrinath-Shri Kedarnath Temple Committee. Narrated with an AI voice. To report a mistake, use "Report a mistake" on this episode.

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