Kalpeshwar Temple

When it is open

Kalpeshwar is the only temple of the Panch Kedar whose doors stay open all twelve months (ETV Bharat, 5 November 2024; Amar Ujala).

Source: etvbharat.com·Checked: 5 October 2026

The Panch Kedar story (by tradition)

The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee and Uttarakhand Tourism give this story: after the Mahabharata war the Pandavas sought Shiva’s blessing to atone for killing their own kin. Shiva kept avoiding them and hid in the Kedar region in the form of a buffalo. Bhima recognised him, and he sank into the ground; his body appeared at five places: the hump at Kedarnath, the arms at Tungnath, the face at Rudranath, the navel at Madhyamaheshwar and the matted hair at Kalpeshwar. At Kalpeshwar the matted hair is worshipped.

We did not find this story in a Purana with chapter and verse, so it is given as a story of the tradition. The sources differ in small details, given further down this page.

The temple today

Kalpeshwar is not on the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee’s list of temples. According to Amar Ujala (19 August 2026), on the night of 17 August a landslide in heavy rain came down behind the temple and buried the compound, the priest’s room and the store; nobody stays there at night and the temple itself is safe, but the footpath and railings were damaged. Check the route with the local administration before you go.

According to the temple committee, the Urgam valley also has the Dhyan Badri temple near Kalpeshwar, counted among the Sapta Badri; it holds a four-armed black stone image of Vishnu in meditation.

How to reach Kalpeshwar

• The way turns off the Rishikesh-Badrinath road at Helang into the Urgam valley (temple committee, Dhyan Badri page). The nearest railway station is Rishikesh and the nearest airport Jolly Grant, Dehradun.

Where the sources differ

• Shiva’s form: the temple committee and Uttarakhand Tourism’s Panch Kedar page say a buffalo; Uttarakhand Tourism’s Kedarnath and Madhyamaheshwar pages say a bull.
• Kalpeshwar’s part: Uttarakhand Tourism says the jata (matted hair); the temple committee says the locks of hair with the head.

Frequently asked questions