Devprayag:My Home Town

Devprayag

State: Uttarakhand

District: Tehri Garhwal/Pauri Garhwal

Architectural styles: Dravidian architecture

Devprayag my home town,my native place, my motherland.It's a very beautiful place in Utarakhand.

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 is the sacred event of merging two heavenly rivers, Alakananda and Bhagirathi, to form the holy Ganga.

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 the home of the late Acharya Shri Pt. Chakradhar Joshi (a scholar in Astronomy and Astrology) who established Nakshatra Vedh Shala (an observatory) in the year 1946. This is located on a mountain called Dashrathanchal at Devprayag. The observatory is well equipped with two telescopes and many books to support research in astronomy. It also contains about 3000 manuscripts from 1677 AD onwards collected from various parts of country. Apart from the latest equipment, it also has the ancient equipment like Surya Ghati, Jal Ghati and Dhruv Ghati which showcase the pride of Bharatiya progress in the field of astronomy. Shri Dr. Prabhakar Joshi and Acharya Shri Bhaskar Joshi (Popularly known as Guruji) are currently in charge and caretakers of the observatory.


Devprayag is home land of many freedomfighters and great soul of Utarakhand like Premlal vaidya,Bhagwati charan nirmohi jee and many others.They were the active freedomfighters in colonial era and also take part in Tehri's freedom movement.Nirmohi ji was a well known politician and poet also.He was the 2 times MLA from Pauri seat and rewarded by sevral awards for his classic Garhwaali Collection 'HILLANS'.


Other than Sangam and Raghunath Ji Temple in Devprayag, one can visit nearby sacred places like Danda Naggaraja (Lord of Snakes) temple and Chandrabadni temple.


The Alaknanda rises at the confluence and feet of the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers in Uttarakhand. The headwaters of the Bhagirathi are formed at Gaumukh, at the foot of the Gangotri glacier and Khatling glaciers in the Garhwal Himalaya. These two sacred rivers join to form the Ganges (Ganga) in Devprayag.

Devprayag is 70 km from Rishikesh. Devprayag has an average elevation of 830 metres (2,723 feet).

Dev Prayag had a population of 5000. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Dev Prayag has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; male literacy is 82% and, female literacy is 72%. In Dev Prayag, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age. The town is the seat of the pandas of the Badrinath Dham.Those Pandas are known as 'Devprayaagi' and all are 'Brahmins'.The root of 'Devprayagis' are South India.They came with 'Shankaracharya ji' hundreds years ago.

Main earning source of devprayagis' is 'Panda Vriti'.They go to the Badrinath for earning in Yatra season.But now the young generation is moving to the delhi and other metro cities and leaving the traditional 'Panda Vritti'.Devprayaagis' have a great knowledge of Sanskrita language.They have their rich culture.Their belive in god specially 'Raghunath ji' and 'Badrinath ji' is just amazing.

Devprayag have their old and rich heritage.It is also known as 'Kandi Mendum Kadi Nagaram' and have its mythological importance.After killing Ravana, lord RAMA came here and do the 'Tapasya' becoz in hindu dhrama killing a brahmin is a sin and Ravan was a brahmin....to be contd