The Pandavas are said to have visited this place to atone for the sin of
killing their relatives during the Kurukshetra war. At this point the Ganges
River flows north, giving this village its name, Gangotri, which means "Ganga
turned north."
Gangotri is a very nice town and is fairly popular with foreign tourists,
many who have come to make the trek to Gaumukh, or further.
At Gangotri the Kedar Ganga merges with the Bhagirathi. There is a falls
called Sahasradhara about 100 yards below this confluence. Just before the
falls the river squeezes itself into a narrow gorge about one metre wide.
The Gangotri temple is dedicated to the goddess Ganga. It is erected near a
sacred stone, called Bhagiratha Shila. King Bhagiratha is said to have sat
here to worship Shiva, so Lord Shiva would take the Ganges on his head. Soon
after the arati to the deities in the temple, an arati is performed to the
holy Ganges River. The temple is open from May to early November.
This is where the holy Yamuna River begins. Yamunotri is about 234 km north
of Haridwar. The Yamuna River flows west to east at Yamunotri. Yamunotri is
the source of the Hanuman Ganga and the Tons River, which are tributaries of
the Yamuna.
This
temple is dedicated to the goddess Yamuna. It was constructed in 1839 by the
Tehri Naresh Sudarshan Shah. The deity of Yamuna is carved from black stone.
Yamuna is the daughter of Surya (the sun-god) and Sangya. She is the twin
sister of Yamaraja, the "Lord of Death". If you bathe in her
waters, you are spared of painful death.
Yamunotri is near a hot spring, at the foot hill of the Kalinda Parvata, on
the bank of the Yamuna at an elevation of 3, 185 metres (10,000ft.).
Yamunotri stands on the western flank of the always snow covered
Bandarpoonch mountain 6,315 metres (20,730 ft.). The Yamunotri temple is
built at the foot of Kalinda Parvata (14,505 feet). The actual source of the
Yamuna is located at the very difficult to reach Saptarishi Kund, a glacial
lake. It is believed that seven great Rishis -Kasyapa, Atri, Bhadravaja,
Visvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, and Vasistha -performed austerities for
millions of years here in Satya-yuga.
The temple opens the last week of April or the first week of May. It closes
around the second week of November.
