Jyotih Peetha, Badarikashrama

UTTARAMNAYA SHRI JYOTISH PEETHAM (ATHARVA VEDA-NORTHEN MONASTRY) LOCATED AT BADRI, UTTARAKHAND.THE FIRST SHANKAR ACHARYA OF JYOTEESH PITH WAS SWAMI TOTAKA ACHARYA AND PRESENT SHANKARACHARYA IS SWAMI SWARUPANAND SARASVATI.

Jyotirmath ( ज्योतिर मठ ), also called Jyotir Math and Joshimath( जोशी मठ ), is a city and a municipal board in Chamoli District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is home to one of the four cardinal pīthas established by Adi Shankara. Adi Shankara established Badrinath as a pilgrimage site in the ninth century.

Shankara discovered the image of Badrinarayan in the Alaknanda River and enshrined it in a cave near the Tapt Kund hot springs.In the sixteenth century, the king of Garhwal moved the murti to the present temple.The temple has undergone several major renovations, due to age and damage by avalanche.In the seventeenth century, the kings of Garhwal expanded the temple.

Pilgrimage centre of great importance is this group of 16 temples enroute to Ranikhet and close to the confluence at Karan Prayag. The main temple is dedicated to Narayan and has a raised platform in the pyramidal form. Within the temple, a black stone idol is installed. It is believed that these temples, dating to the Gupta age, were sanctioned by Adi Shankaracharya who wanted to spread the tenets of Hinduism to every remote corner of the country. Badrinath temple, sometimes called Badrinarayan temple, sits on the Alaknanda river, in the hill town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand state in India. Widely considered one of the holiest Hindu temples, the temple has been dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The temple and town number among the four Char Dham pilgrimage sites as well as one of the 108 Divya Desams, holy shrines for Vaishnavites. The temple opens only six months every year (between the end of April and the beginning of November), due to extreme weather conditions in the Himalayan region.

Devotees worship several murtis in the temple, the most important a one meter tall statue of Vishnu as Lord Badrinarayan made of black Saligram stone. Many Hindus consider the statue one of eight swayam vyakta keshtras, or self-manifested statues of Vishnu.The murti depicts Vishnu sitting in meditative posture, rather than His far more typical reclining pose. In November each year, when the town of Badrinath closes, devotees move the image to nearby Jyotirmath. Located in the in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve of the Himalayan mountains, the temple benefits from the grandeur of that majestic mountain range. Adi Shankara, the founder of Advaita Vedanta around 800 C.E., designated the site as a holy pilgrimage site.