Kedarnath priest vows to stay till Deepavali

Pilgrims stranded in the holy places of Uttarakhand may be desperate to go home. But not Vageesha Lingacharya, the chief priest of the Kedarnath Shiva shrine.

He is determined to fulfil the chief priests’ vow to take care of the procession idol of the deity,till the poojas end for the year during Deepavali. There are five priests in the temple and each of them becomes the chief priest by rotation every year.

Speaking to Deccan Herald over the phone from Ukki Mutt in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand on Tuesday, Vageesha said, “The procession idol has been brought to Ukki Mutt through Gupta Kashi. The throne of the deity is situated in Ukki Mutt and prayers will be offered there, breaking from tradition, owing to the natural disaster. Usually, prayers are not offered at this time of the year at the throne.”

The pooja responsibilities will be transferred to another priest after Deepavali, said Vageesha, who hails from Bhanuvalli in Harihar taluk.

He said entry of outsiders had been prohibited in Kedarnath and that 95 per cent of the local residents had been evacuated from there. Gangadhar Acharya, the Davangere-based priest of Omkareshwara temple, said the Ukki Mutt had not been affected by the floods, but that the Rudraprayag-Kedarnath highway was flooded.