Kedarnath Temple (Shiva temple )
Kedarnath has been a pilgrimage centre since the ancient times, although it is not certain who constructed the original Kedarnath temple and when. A mythological account ascribes the temple's construction to the legendary Pandava brothers mentioned in the Mahabharata . [2] [3] 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 Shiva released the holy water from his matted hair, resulting in the formation of the Ganges river . [4] According to the hagiographies based on Madhava's Sankshepa-shankara-vijaya , the 8th century philosopher Adi Shankara died near the Kedaranatha (Kedarnath) sanctuary; although other hagiographies, based on Anandagiri's Prachina-Shankara-Vijaya , state that he died at Kanchi . The ru...