Virbhadra Temple, Rishikesh

Virbhadra Temple, at Virbhadra near Rishikesh, is dedicated to Virbhadra, a form of Shiva, and is said to be about 1,300 years old. In the legend, Shiva brought Virbhadra into being in his fury after Sati, insulted when her father Daksh Prajapati left Shiva out of his yagya at Kankhal, threw herself into the sacrificial fire. Shivratri and Sawan are marked with all-night jagrans and special pujas, and a mela is held at Mahashivratri.

Excavations in the early 1970s showed the site was lived on without a break from roughly the 2nd century to the 8th. Near the river, buildings were of baked brick, perhaps the homes of wealthier residents, while houses farther off were roughly built of mud brick, boulders and pebbles. Two sizeable temples also stood by the river, one with a linga, built around the 4th–5th centuries, and a second added later to its south. Animal bones appear only in the earliest layers, hinting at a possible shift towards vegetarianism.