Shri Madhyamaheshwar Mahadev Temple is one of the Panch Kedar and Fourth one and is located at a height of 11473 ft approx. It is the place where Prabhu Shiva’s Belly showed up while Bhim was pulling back. Temple is open for 6 months only from May till Diwali. After that, Prabhu is worshipped at Ukimath Temple at Rudraprayag. Temple surroundings are lush green Alpine meadows. To the right of the temple, there is a small temple where the marble image of Maa Saraswati is installed in the sanctum.

Legend and History

Going by epic, the temple was built by Pandavas. Full of remorse, after realizing the truth of killing their own kinsmen in the Kurukshetra war, Pandavas decided to atone for their sins, handed over their kingdom to their kind, and began their search for Prabhu Shiva to seek his blessings. The search began from Varanasi, Kashi Vishwanath temple, Shiva’s favorite residing place. But, deeply disdained by the dishonesty and brutality in the war, Shiva wanted to avoid them and hence, disguised as a bull and hid in the Garhwal region. Pandavas then went to the Garhwal hills in search of him. While looking between the mountains, Bhima saw a bull (Nandi) and recognized him for Bhagwan Shiva. On being seen, Shiva dove underground but Bhima could catch the hump. Bheem tried to pull them back by the tail of Nandi Ji, which led to forming of Kedarnath and other Panch Kedar.

Different parts of the Prabhu came up at different parts-hump at Kedarnath, arms at Tungnath, navel at Madhya-Maheshwar, face at Rudranath, and hair emerged at Kalpeshwar. Taken together, these five sites are known as Panch-Kedar. Pandavas got temples made at each of the 5 places.