Yamunotri Temple
Yamunotri, Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand, India
- Deities
- Yamuna
- Traditions
- shakta
- Worship status
- active
- Address
- Yamunotri, near Janki Chatti, Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand, India
- Coordinates
- 31.0106, 78.4587
- Darshan hours
- Varies by temple and season; consult the temple's own trust/management for the current daily schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- Late April/May (Akshaya Tritiya reopening) to October; closed in winter like the other Char Dham sites.
- How to reach
- About 150 km from Uttarkashi by road, at roughly 3,293 m elevation; the final stretch to the temple is a trek from Janki Chatti, as the site is not reachable by vehicle.
- Festivals
- Akshaya Tritiya (temple reopening) (April/May)
Location
Open in Google MapsThe source-seat of the goddess Yamuna and, with Gangotri, one of the two Char Dham sites reached only after a Himalayan trek (the true glacial source lies still higher, at about 4,421 m, and is not accessible, so worship takes place at the lower temple instead). The present temple was built in 1839 under Raja Sudarshan Shah of the Tehri princely state (some sources instead credit a later Tehri ruler, Pratap Shah, flagged here since accounts differ), replacing an earlier, smaller shrine at the site. The temple’s black-marble image of Yamuna sits beside the Surya Kund hot spring, where pilgrims traditionally cook rice and potatoes in the naturally boiling water as a blessed offering to carry home.
Sources
- historical record: Cross-checked against Wikipedia's Yamunotri article: confirms the 1839 construction (with the Sudarshan Shah/Pratap Shah attribution genuinely differing across sources), Char Dham status, the Surya Kund hot spring, and the inaccessible true glacial source.
For review
- Sources differ on whether the 1839 temple was built under Raja Sudarshan Shah or a later Tehri ruler, Pratap Shah; both attributions are noted rather than one asserted as settled.