Kedarnath

Kedarnath has been a pilgrimage centre since ancient times.The temple's construction is credited to the Pandava brothers mentioned in the Mahabharata.[1][2] However, the Mahabharata does not mention any place called Kedarnath. One of the earliest references to Kedarnath occurs in the Skanda Purana (c. 7th-8th century), which names Kedara (Kedarnath) as the place where Lord Shiva released the holy waters of Ganga from his matted hair, resulting in the formation of the Ganges River.[3]

According to the hagiographies based on Madhava's Sankshepa-Shankara-Vijaya, the 8th century philosopher Adi Shankaracharya 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 Shankaracharya are located at Kedarnath.[4] Kedarnath was definitely a prominent pilgrimage centre by the 12th century when it is mentioned in Kritya-kalpataru written by the Gahadavala minister Bhatta Lakshmidhara.[5]

^ J. Gordon Melton; Martin Baumann, eds. (2010). Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices. Vol. 1 (A-B) (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 1624. ISBN 978-1-59884-204-3. ^ James G. Lochtefeld (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M. Rosen. pp. 363–364. ISBN 978-0-8239-3179-8. ^ Alex McKay (2015). Kailas Histories: Renunciate Traditions and the Construction of Himalayan Sacred Geography. BRILL. p. 135. ISBN 978-90-04-30618-9. ^ N. V. Isaeva (1993). Shankara and Indian Philosophy. SUNY Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-7914-1282-4. ^ Edward Quinn (2014). Critical Companion to George Orwell. Infobase. p. 232. ISBN 978-1-4381-0873-5.