Skip to main content

Gupta Kashi in Images

Completing the journey of Gangotri, we headed towards Kedarnath from Uttar Kashi and had a halt at Gupt Kashi. It is a fairly larger town in Kedar Khand (sector) of Gadwal Himalayas of Rudraprayag district in Uttarakhand. It is located in the Northern belt of Himalayas with lush green forests. The valley has large number of Mangolia trees locally known as Champa.

Gupta Kashi is famous for an ancient Vishwanath Temple dedicated to Lord Siva as in Uttar Kashi. Gupt Kashi means secret kashi. There are few legends related to the name of this place. According to one legend, Lord Shiva lived in incognito at this place knowing that Pandavas are coming to meet him. He was angry and doesn't want to see them as he was not happy for their deeds in the battle of Kurukshetra. Another legend says that long back, Kashi in Varanasi was the home for many enlightened saints and sages. Due to increasing number of common people, they shifted their base to Uttarkashi. When commoners reached there also they moved further in and they used to meet secretely at Gupt Kashi and hence the name came to it. 


One misty morning my eyes caught up these beautiful snow sparkling mountains of Chaukhamba peak from the terrace of the restaurant where we stayed. 
I wasted no time in capturing this beautiful view of the Himalayan peak of Kedarnath sector.
It was a lazy morning where the Sun just began to peep through the clouds over the mountains.
A far view of the Chaukhamba range standing tall behind the lush green mountains.
This is the famous Vishwanath Temple of Guptkashi. All the temples you find in Uttarakhand are of same style of architecture. This is the main temple which has an ancient Shiv-ling in the Sanctum Sanctorium.
Another temple on the right is the Ardha Nareeshwar murthy (idol) with half woman and half man representing Lord Shiva and his wife Parvathi.
The water springs you see here are the two underground water springs popular known as Gupt Ganga and Gupt Yamuna.
Due to our short stay in Gupt Kashi, i could manage to capture only these pictures. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Amazing views of Badrinath

From Joshimath we traveled to Badrinath the last destination of our trip to chota char-dham. Badrinath is at an average elevation of 3100 meters (10,170 feet) above the sea level in the Garhwal Himalayas on the banks of river Alaknanda.  Badrinath is famous for the temple of Badrinath dedicated to Lord Vishnu. 'Badri' refers to a berry that was said to grow abundantly in this area and 'Nath' means the Lord. The temple remains closed during winters and the utsav-murthy (festive idol) of Badrinath is kept at Joshimath for worship.  There are plenty of ashrams in Badrinath that provide accommodation for pilgrims.  We stationed at Chinna Jeeyar Ashram at Badrinath. This giant statue of Jeeyar welcomes you on reaching the Ashram. From our balcony we could see some of these beautiful mountains covered in snow.  The peak below is the famous Manikantha parvat in Badrinath.  It is one of the tallest peaks in the Garhwal Himalayan region with an e

A glance at Bellur, the birth place of Guruji

Bellur is a small village in Kolar district 55 kilometers from Bangalore in Karnataka, India with around 500 houses and an average population of 2000 people. It is in this village, the Legendary Yogacharya Sri. B.K.S. Iyengar was born on 14th of December 1918. Bellur was an 'Agrahara' during Guruji's time of birth. agra means front and hara means the garland. According to traditional Hindu practice of architecture and town planning, an 'agraharam' is held to be the two rows of houses (mainly of Brahmins) running North-South on either sides of the road resembling a garland, at one end of which would be a temple of 'Shiva' and at the other end would be a temple of 'Vishnu'. The two temples of Shiva at one end of the village and a temple of Rama (incarnation of Vishnu as per Hindu Mythology) are still present in the village of Bellur. Both these temples are quite old and are chosen as National heritage sites by Archaeological Survey of India. Both

Lalbagh Revisited

We had a terrific beginning of the year 2018 with Iyengar Yoga Intensive at Bellur by a very profound Iyengar Yoga Teacher Rita Keller from Germany. This was our second consecutive workshop with her in Bellur. We were deeply touched by her affection and love apart from her deep intellectual and insightful teaching of yoga. Since the workshop was for 3 long weeks, she took us on an excursion to Lalbagh in Bengaluru. After two hours of bus ride we arrived at Lalbagh. Hyderabadi boys got disappointed when they found Rita Keller is booking EMV's (Electric Motor Vehicles) to explore the park. When we expressed our willingness to walk, she said we go round the corner in EMV's and then every individual is free to walk thereafter. We then happily boarded the EMV's.  These EMV's run on battery and are environmental friendly. The driver sharing some insight about an ancient tree with the group. Sridevi, Tulsi and Viru having some fun. This is dear Marcus ca