Sacred river confluences and beautiful Garhwal

It was the most unexpected trip of my life - traveling across Kumaon and Garhwal, India - the beautiful Silwalik range through some of the most revered Hindu sacred places culminating at the valley where the temple of Lord Badrinath exists at an altitude of 11,204 ft. The town lies in the between the Nar and Narayan mountain ranges and in the shadow of Nilkantha peak (6,560 m). Badrinath was re-established as a major pilgrimage site by Adi-Sankaracharya in the ninth century. This is one of the four major pilgrimage sites widely revered by Hindus across the world - Badrinath, Dwarka, Jaganath Puri and Rameshwaran. But it is also a wonderful place if you love adventure sports namely rafting and hiking. So it's not just a place for those seeking eternal salvation!

The landscape is truly breathtaking and as you travel higher up even blissfully peaceful, the roads are treacherous and risky. To be honest, risky would be a gross understatement, it was outright dangerous with all those landslides that seemed to crop up at every alternate turn.  The drive from Haridwar through Rishikesh to Badrinath normally takes around 8-10 hours (~301 km north of Rishikesh) given there are no hitches in the roads otherwise it may even take a few days, its not bad per say except you never know when or where the next road will be washed away.

All the way you travel through winding roads that run alongside the revered rivers Ganga and Alaknanda that rumble along majestically. There are five sacred river confluences along this route from Rishikesh to Badrinath. River Alaknanda first meets with the sacred Saraswathi river just before the town of Mana then meets Dhauliganga at Vishnu Prayag, the next river confluence is Nand Prayag where the River Nandakini meets the main river Alaknanda, Karn Prayag follows next with the river Pindar meeting Alaknanda river at this confluence. The fourth confluence is formed by the merging of river Mandakini with river Alaknanda at Rudra Prayag. The final Prayag in this series of five is the revered Dev Prayag where rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi come together - beyond this confluence the river comes to be known as river Ganga. The importance of this particular Prayag is considered equal to the Prayag at Allahbad where the mighty rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi meet. 

Early morning, start of a beautiful journey

The term 'Prayag' in Hindu tradition signifies the confluence of two or more rivers where ablutions before worship, religious rites called the Shraddha (the last rites) for the departed as well as the worship of the river as a manifestation of God takes place. 

If you care to hike about an hour from Badrinath, you will also witness the rare sight of the mighty river Saraswathi as it emerges briefly only to sink into a crevice deep into earth. A little further below lies the town of Mana where India's last tea shop exists close to the Chinese border. In fact, Badrinath is not the only sacred place here, at the altitude of 15,200 ft is the sacred HemKund Sahib, a pilgrimage center for Sikhs in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. In between all this, I heard quite a few things about one site in particular known as the Valley of the Flowers renowned for its meadows of alpine flowers - a near mystical place with equally mystical prowess. 

The lower town, Badrinath and River Alaknanda

No matter how you travel, when you reach the valley of Lord Badrinath, you feel vindicated by the bliss, peace and the energy of the place. They say, this is the only place from where the roads to heaven exist, for it was through these valleys and gorges that the mighty Pandavs strode towards heaven; the little town of Badrinath with the majestic Alaknanda river felt like nothing less.