Kedar Nath & Badri Narayan - Swami Vivekananda

!8 KEDAR NATH AND BADRI NARAYANit Saivite. Its worship of Siva is of a pre-Sankaracharyantype.The dharmsala which we occupied here was adelightful piece of architecture. It consisted of twostoreys, of which we occupied the upper. It wasbuilt of mud and timber, and had immense bo-treesoutside. The upper floor consisted of a lar^everandah with a row of pillars running down themiddle from end to end, and one little room tuckedinto the corner. It was like the realisation of a caveat Ajanta or Ellora as a welling-house. But alas, itwas set with its face to the pratfaga^ which we couldnot see, even then, and its back to the wind-filledgorge, and in all the heat of the turbid night that -wespent there, there was not a breath of air !We were off early next day, to do ten miles andreach a halting-place called RAMPUR. On the way,we passed a dak bungalow called Kolta, for which,had we desired to use it, we ought to have taken thekey at the Ranibagh Bazar, half a mile earlier. Onreaching Rampur, we could not dream of consentingto stay. There was no dharmsala and even thechappars were only woven of boughs. There wasno water either, except what was horribly dirty, andthe dried-up stream, with its bed and banks full ofnameless horrors, looked like the haunt of alldisease. We decided, though it was already late,* It ought to be explained, for non-Hindu readers, thatprayag means simply confluences, or Junction, and that thesegeographical points are held peculiarly holy, in Hinduism.