The confluence of the rivers where God appeared

In yesterday's post you read how I reached Haridwar after travelling 6 hours from home and witnessed the famous Ganga Aarti. It has been many days since I have been staying in Haridwar. From here my next destination is Rudranath temple which is situated amidst the high mountains of Himalayas. Before visiting Rudranath temple, I reached Devprayag and Rudraprayag about which I am going to write today.

The distance from Haridwar to Devprayag is about 98 km, it took me about 3 hours to reach by bus. After getting down here I see that there is a jam on the highway and think that it is good that I got down here otherwise I would have been stuck in the jam for who knows how long. Devprayag is famous for the confluence of two rivers. The height of Devprayag is 830 meters and this place is one of the five Prayags located in Tehri Garhwal District, Uttarakhand.

Here Alaknanda and Bhagirathi meet and after the confluence at Prayag, when this river moves forward, it is called Ganga. Let me tell you that the origin of Alaknanda river is Satapath Tal which is about 24 km away from Badrinath temple. Whereas the origin of Bhagirathi river is Gaumukh which is 14 km ahead of Gangotri temple. Both these origin places come under the famous 4 Dham and both the places have special importance among Hindus.

According to history, Rishi Dev Sharma attained salvation by doing penance here, this place is named Devprayag after him. The confluence of both the rivers is considered very holy, it is said that bathing here leads to salvation, so every year a large number of Hindus reach here to take a holy bath. Apart from Sangam, there is Raghunath temple here which is dedicated to Lord Rama, in the eighth century Shankaracharya also established an ashram here.

I keep my bag and shoes at the shop situated before Devprayag Sangam and go to Sangam so that I can take a bath. I do not take mobile and camera with me at Sangam due to fear of getting swept away, so I could not click any photo while bathing at Sangam. After spending about 2 hours here, I come back to the bus stand from where I take a bus to the next Prayag named Rudraprayag.

The distance from Devprayag to Devprayag is 66 km, which takes me about two and a quarter hours to cover by bus. Since it takes me a lot of time to reach by bus, so today I decide to stay in Rudraprayag and rent a cheap room and set out on foot towards Sangam.

Rudraprayag is a religious place situated at an altitude of 850 meters. Here Alaknanda river merges with Mandakini. Alaknanda which is coming from Satapath Lake situated ahead of Badrinath, while Mandakini river is Charabari glacier situated above Kedarnath temple. After meeting each other here, both the rivers move towards Devprayag.

According to history, Lord Rudra (Shiva) had blessed Narada here and this is why this place is named Rudraprayag. The belief here is that a person becomes free from sins by taking bath here. It is also believed that the Pandavas spent some time here while going to Kedarnath. I enjoy the view here in the sunny season and click some beautiful photos from a distance with my camera.

Before evening I return to my room. From the window of the room, I see that there is a fire on the top of a mountain far away, seeing this fire I wonder whether the forest department will do something to extinguish it. After dinner, this fire is extinguished and I feel relaxed after seeing it extinguished. So this was my religious journey to Devprayag and Rudraprayag.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Canon 77D (18-55mm) and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.