Gupt Kashi

Gupt Kashi ("Hidden Benares") is an important site on the pilgrim road to Kedarnath (37 miles further up). At 4300 feet it is habitable year-round, and Kedarnath's hereditary pilgrim guides (pandas) live in a nearby village. Both of Gupt Kashi's brightly painted temples (typically Garhwali) are dedicated to Shiva, the larger one in his form as Vishvanath ("Lord of all," as in Benares), and the smaller one to his "half-woman" manifestation. Fronting the latter is an exquisite cast-metal statue of Shiva's bull Nandi. Painted wooden canopies decorate the temple spires--serving as symbolic umbrellas to show respect for the deities within--and the Vishvanath temple has guardian deity images surrounding the entrance. In the temple foreground a spring has been channeled through two metal spouts, an elephant and a cow, identified as the Yamuna and Ganges Rivers, respectively.

A short distance north are two additional noteworthy sites. Dating from the 10-11th c. CE, the Narayan Koti temple group is one of the oldest datable sites in the Mandakini Valley. The primary temple has an image of Lakshmi-Narayan (Vishnu and Lakshmi as rulers of the universe), along with a number of subsidiary temples. The Tripura Sundari temple is more recent (18th c.) but finely built.