Badrinath Temple, also called Badrinarayan Temple, situated along the Alaknanda river, in the hill town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand state in India, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. The temple and town are one of the four Char Dham and Chota Char Dham pilgrimage sites. It is also one of the 108 Divya Desams, holy shrines for Vaishnavites. The temple is open only six months every year (between the end of April and the beginning of November), due to extreme weather conditions in the Himalayan region. The temple is located in Garhwal hill tracks, along the banks of Alakanda river at an elevation of 3,133 m (10,279 ft) above the mean sea level. The temple is one of the most visited pilgrimage centers of India, with a recorded number of visitors of 1,060,000.
The image of the presiding deity worshipped in the temple is a 1 m (3.3 ft) tall statue of Vishnu in the form Badrinarayan, made of black stone. The statue is considered by many Hindus to be one of eight swayam vyakta kshetras, or self-manifested statues of Vishnu.
The temple finds mention in ancient religious texts like Vishnu Purana and in the works of 5th century poet Kalidasa. The temple is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil canon of the Azhwar saints from the 6th–9th centuries AD. It is one of the 108 Divyadesam dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Badrinath and his consort Lakshmi as Aravindavalli.
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