My first Badari Yaatra - Part 2 - 06/11/2024

 Day – 2 (06/11/2024)

Our previous day's itinerary: Visit Bharat Mandir at Rishikesh and the night halt at Dev Prayag. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we had to drop this from the first day's plan.

Plan for the second day: Rudra Prayag, Karna Prayag, visit to Karna temple, Bairaskund, Gulabkoti - Lakshmi Narayana temple, Kalpeshwar, Dhyan Badari, Vrudh Badari and reach Joshimath for night halt.

Let me narrate our Day 2 activities:

This morning, we woke up early and were greeted by the ever-ready coffee maker, Suma Aunty, as we had our first cuppa before bath (this became our routine for the rest of our trip) and then had a breakfast of Aloo Parathas (Suma Aunty had her muesli), with a cup of masala tea.

Our first halt was at Karnaprayag to aid Anil in scouting hotel accommodations, for his proposed tour next year. While Anil and Suma Aunty were at it, we found our way to reach the holy confluence of the Pindar Ganga and Alakananda rivers and had a ‘prokshane’ of its waters.

Confluence of Pindar Ganga and Alakananda rivers

Different views of the confluence

Hereon, we went to Saankari village, Kwirali also known as Bairaskund (a distance of around 45 km from Karna Prayag), where legend goes that the 10-headed mighty Ravana cut off his head one by one, in the Kund (tank) in front of the ancient temple, to beget a boon from Lord Shiva and succeeded in getting it from the Lord. We could see the place where Ravana used to perform Sandhyavandana. There are temples of Lord Vishnu, Shanidev, Lord Ganesha, Maa Parvathi and the Shivalinga in the main temple was the one worshipped by the mighty Ravana. It is said that the Shivalinga has the outlines of both Lord Shiva and Maa Parvathi. The impression of Ravana's ten hands too, can be seen on one of the rocks. 

This place is quite a distance and elevation from Karnaprayag and the roads were challenging (mainly due to rain damage) to our big vehicle. The temple has remained untouched by any modernity and continues to exist with its ancient structure of slate roof and stone walls.          

           Old temple at Bairskund                        The pond where Ravana used to cut 

                                                                                off his head while doing penance

                Impressions of Ravana's 10 hands          Place where Ravana used to perform                                                                                                                         Sandhyavandana

                                        

                                   Lord Vishnu                              Lord Ganesh

                                Lord Shani                            Maa Durga

 

Mural of Ravana's Penance       Shiva Linga with outlines of Parvathi and Shiva          

Suma Aunty kept tracking the package couriered by her twice a day.

After Bairaskund, we started to explore other places in our daily itinerary. We encountered road blockage due to landslides and the authorities could pave the way for a single carriageway as we started from Karna Prayag. We refueled at a petrol pump, on the way to Joshimath, where we negotiated to hire a smaller vehicle (due to the narrow roads) to visit the ancient Lakshmi Narayana Temple at Gulabkoti. The legend goes that there was a competition between two neighbouring Kings as to who would build the most beautiful temple. While one of the Kings built this temple, he was prevented by the other King’s evil intents (who saw this temple and was jealous of his counterpart’s accomplishment) who conspired to kill the King and his courtiers. No further details on this.

Way to the temple                      Lakshmi Narayana temple views          

The temple is approachable only by foot and the vehicles could only drop us around 100 mts below. Added, the dusk was fast approaching and we had to hasten with our visit. Despite this, by the time we finished our visit to the temple, it was quite dark and we had to use our mobile phone torches to aid us climb down.

We then proceeded towards Joshimath for the night stay at Hotel Neelkanth – a distance of around 80 km from Karnaprayag. The night’s dinner was our typical ‘Saaru-Anna’ and curd rice.

Plan vs. Actual:

We couldn't visit Karna Temple as we were busy helping Anil in scouting for his forthcoming activity (yes, I know that's a flimsy reason), nevertheless, as an out-of-syllabus activity, we had a close look at the holy confluence and had a shower of its waters. Due to the road conditions to and from Bairskund, we lost a lot of time and couldn't get to see Kalpeshwar, Dhyan Badri and Vrudha Badari (but Suma Aunty was determined, like the legendary King Vikramaditya of 'Vikram and Betaal' fame and she planned our visit to these places, post our Badari visit).

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Camp Coordinates: Hotel Neelkanth - T.C.P. Bazar, Joshimath, Uttarakhand 246443

Phone:+919634367500  

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xiNbXhNfb678Xwqv8

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Continued..... in Part 3