High in the Garhwal Himalayas, reached by one of the most demanding treks of the Panch Kedar through dense rhododendron forest and alpine meadow, Rudranath enshrines Shiva as the face (mukha) of the Lord. In the Panch Kedar legend of the Mahabharata, when the bull-form of Shiva dived into the earth to elude the Pandavas and reappeared in five parts across these mountains, it was here that his face emerged — worshipped in a natural rock shrine as Neelkanth, the blue-throated Lord.
Set amid meadows with sweeping views of the Nanda Devi, Trishul, and Nanda Ghunti peaks, and near the sacred Vaitarani stream where pilgrims perform rites for their ancestors, Rudranath is among the most remote and atmospheric of the five Kedar shrines. In winter the deity is worshipped at Gopeshwar below.
To reach Rudranath is to earn one of the Himalayas' most hard-won and moving darshans.
