Yamunotri Temple

Yamunotri Temple It is from Barkot that the road to Yamunotri starts wending its way along the banks of the Yamuna and the roads from Mussoorie and Kalsi meet here. There is motorable route up to Hanuman Chatti. This little Chatti is just 7 kilometres from Sayana Chatti and set against beautiful surround­ings. A 13 kilometres trek to Yamunotri starts from here.

Two perilous routes connect Hanuman Chatti toYamunotri. The route along the right bank proceeds via Markendeya Tirtha, where the sage Markendeya wrote the Markendeya Puran. The route on the left bank goes to Kharsali. From here, the climb takes five or six hours. There are two kunds atYamunotri, at a height of 3292 metres: Surya Kund, whose water is boiling hot; and Gauri Kund, where it is just tepid. The idol of Yamuna is a vision in black; and Ganga, a lady in white. The river Yamuna flows from Kalindi Parvat in the Bandar Poonch range. Here, flowers, especially wild roses, grow in abundance. Yamunotri is surrounded by some hoary chestnut trees. According to Hindu mythology and custom a dip in the Yamuna here would absolve one of all sins.

History and architecture of Goddess Yamuna:
The ancient temple was constructed by the king of Tehri, Naresh Sudarshan Shah in 1839 but after a massive earthquake, the major portion of the temple was damaged twice and then it was reconstructed by Maharani of Jaipur, Gularia Devi, in the 19th century AD. It was built by using surrounding mountain slides and granite stones, in the Indian Nagar style of architecture. The Temple of Goddess Yamunotri is conical in shape with an eye-catchy yellow roof and a red boundary at the top of the temple. The small-sized porch is joined to the main entrance of the temple which makes the temple more beautiful. Goddess Yamuna is placed inside the ‘garbha-gruha’ (core chamber). There are some mandaps, which are used as assembly halls for the devotees to perform prayers, darshan of the Goddess and for other rituals in the temple.