Char Dham [India] and Chhota Char Dham [Uttarakhand]:::.

Char Dham (literally: 'the four abodes/seats') are the four abodes of God in the four directions of India - Puri in the east, Rameshwaram in the south, Dwarka in the west, and Badrinath in the north. They were collated by the 8th century reformer and philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, into the archetypal all-India pilgrimage circuit to the four cardinal points of the Indian subcontinent in a bid to unify people across the region.

The great 8th century reformer and philosopher Shankaracharya (Adi Sankara) was prominently involved in reviving the Hindu Dharma in India (Bharat). He traveled throughout the country and grouped the four sacred places Badrinath, Rameshwaram, Puri and Dwarka as the Char Dham which are dedicated to the Vishnu Avatars (incarnations). Geographically speaking the char dham make a perfect square with Badrinath and Rameswaram falling on same longitude and Dwarka(old) and Puri on same latitude, representing the farthest north east west and south points of India (at that time, before coastlines changed).

BADRINATH located in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, is the most important of the four sites of Char Dham [citation needed]. It is in the Garhwal hills, on the banks of the Alaknanda River. The town lies between the Nar and Narayana mountain ranges and in the shadow of Nilkantha peak (6,560m). Badri refers to a berry that was said to grow abundantly in the area, and nath refers to Vishnu. The legend goes that Shankara discovered a black stone image of Lord Badrinarayan made of Saligram stone in the Alaknanda river. He originally enshrined it in a cave near the Tapt Kund hot springs. In the sixteenth century, the King of Garhwal moved the murti to the present temple.

DWARKA located in the West is in the state of Gujarat, India. The city derives its name from word dvar meaning door or gate in the Sanskrit language. It is located close to where the Gomti River merges into the Gulf of Kutch. The city lies in the westernmost part of India.

The legendary city of Dvaraka was the dwelling place of Lord Krishna. It is believed that due to damage and destruction by the sea, Dvaraka has submerged six times and modern day Dwarka is the 7th such city to be built in the area.

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