Traditionally, it is considered to be the place where sage Devasharma led his ascetic life, giving birth its present name, Devprayag. It is one of the five sacred confluences in the hills and is an important place of pilgrimage for devout Hindus.
“Devaprayaga” means “Godly Confluence” in Sanskrit. As per Hindu scriptures, Devaprayaga is the sacred event of merging two heavenly rivers, Alakananda and Bhagirathi, to form the holy Ganges.
On a terrace in the upper part of the village is the temple of Raghunathji, built of huge stones, pyramidal in form and capped by a white cupola.
Devprayag is surrounded by 3 Godly peaks, named Giddhanchal Parvat, Dashrathanchal Parvat, and Narsinghancal Parvat. Giddhanchal Parvat is on top of Raghunnath Ji temple. Narsinghanchal Parvat is in front of Giddhanchal Parvat and Dashrathanchal Parvat is on top right side of “Sangam”. Lord Shiva is worshiped here in the form of Linga, named Tondeshwar Mahadev and Dhaneshwar Mahadev. Tondeshwar Mahadev is Just in front of Sangam. It is very crowded on the day of Mahashivratri. Many devotees arrives here to donate Gangajal on Linga. Dhaneshwar Mahadev is in route on old Badrinath Way, starts from Bah Bajar (A market in Devprayag). With this way devotees can reach at Just another temple of Maa Durga in Pundal Village. In this temple, Maa Durga is worshiped in Maa Bhuvneshwari form. The temple of Maa Bhuvneshwari is situated at Pundal village which is at footstep of approx 500-700mtrs from Dhaneshwar Temple.”Mishras” live here in Pundal village.
Devprayag is the home of priests of Badrinath. They are known as “Pandas”. Every Panda has his own region in whole country. A thousand years ago, when Adiguru Shankaracharya came to the area in Badrikashram in the 8th century, many South Indian Brahmins from different areas with different castes came over here with Aadiguru. These were “Tetriya Krishna Yajur Brahmin. Inspired by the wisdom of Brahmins, Maharaja of Garhwal assigned them to worship Lord Ram in Raghunath Temple in Devprayag. When these Brahmins arrived at Badrinath, they were worshiped by the pilgrims. Since then, Brahmins are known as Panda in Dham and everywhere. Pandas worship devotees of the same area of each region they offers. Every Panda plays a significant role in any devotee life while he arrives Badrinath for Puja or Darshan. While they arrive Badrinath, Pandas look after them very carefully. Pandas organize everything for their Yatri like food, accommodation, puja’s tickets, and everything which is really needful to the yatri. Pandas have a thousands years of literature of their devotee(Yatri). In this literature, every information is mentioned about devotee’s last 3 or 4 generations. Every Panda having various types of books related to his Yatri’s information, like Bahi, Daskhati and all others. Every Yatri is identified with the help of these books. The peoples of Devprayag (Pandas) spend their 6 months of a year at Badrinath and rest of 2–3 months in Devprayag. They spend this in their own regions. It is quite hard for a Panda and his family as He spends very less time with the family. Many peoples say that Pandagiri is a very normal and less prestigious occupation. But as it belongs to their God Almighty and this is their patrimonial occupation, it automatically becomes more prestigious rather than the other occupations. The cuisines of Devprayag are also rich and famous as Devprayag. Dishes like Singori and Bal Mithai keep an important place in Devprayagi’s heart. Singori, traditionally made with khoya wrapped in form of a cone with Maalu leaves. The khoya absorbs the smell of Maalu leaves. On the other hand, Bal Mithai is a brown chocolate-like fudge, made with roasted khoya, coated with white sugar balls.
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