Why devotees come here
Madhyamaheshwar is a Shiva temple in Gaundar village, Rudraprayag district, in the Garhwal Himalayas. At about 3,497 m, it is one of the five Shiva temples of the Panch Kedar circuit. Here the navel of Shiva is worshipped, and the temple sits close to the source of the Madmaheshwar river.
Devotees worship the temple as the navel, or middle, of Shiva. The temple is also spelt Madmaheshwar. Folklore says the Pandavas sought Shiva after the Kurukshetra War, to atone for fratricide and the killing of a Brahmin. Shiva sank into the earth at Kedarnath to escape them, and his torso surfaced here. Legend says the navel and stomach surfaced here and the hair at Kalpeshwar.
Bhima, the second Pandava brother, is believed to have built the temple and worshipped Shiva here. The temple follows the North-Indian Himalayan style. It stands in a lush meadow just below a high ridge, near the source of the Madmaheshwar river. It is the second of the Panch Kedar temples.
Inside the sanctum sits a navel-shaped Shiva lingam of black stone. Two smaller shrines stand beside the main temple, one for Parvati and one for Ardhanarishwara, the half-Shiva, half-Parvati form. That image shows Shiva and Parvati together in one form.
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