Tungnath Temple

There is a legend associated with the Tungnath Temple. It is believed that after killing their cousins in the Kurukshetra war, Pandavas started their journey to visit Lord Shiva to wash their sins away. Lord Shiva wanted to avoid them as he was deeply incensed by the death and dishonesty in the Kurukshetra war. Therefore, he disguised himself in the form of a bull, Nandi and disappeared into the ground with different parts of the body appearing at various places. His hump appeared at Kedarnath, his bahu (arm) was spotted at Tungnath, his head surfaced at Rudranath, the stomach and navels were traced at Madhyamaheswar and his jata (tress) was divined at Kalpeshwar.  Pandvas built a temple at this place to worship Lord Shiva and to please him.

Since Shiva’s arms were fallen of here at Tungnath, another meaning of Tungnath is derived from the word ‘Tung’ meaning – arms, and ‘Nath’ representing Lord Shiva.