Madhyamaheshwar  or
Madmaheshwar is a Hindu temple dedicated to god Shiva, located in the Mansoona
village of Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand, India. it is the fourth temple to
be visited in the Panch Kedar pilgrimage circuit, comprising five Shiva temples
in the Garhwal region. The other temples in the circuit include: Kedarnath,
Tungnath and Rudranat to be visited before Madmaheshwar and Kalpeshwar to be
visited after Madmaheshwar.Madhyamaheshwar is one of those unexplored places whose
presence on the spiritual map cannot be ignored. Set at an altitude of 3265
meters above sea level, the whole village gathers around to pray at the
Madhyamaheshwar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. One needs to do an easy trek of
16 km to reach MadhyaMaheshwar. Rasi Village is the base village of the trek.
The Madhyamaheshwar Temple is closed from November to April, owing to the
freezing cold winters. May to October is considered a good time to pay a visit
in the soothing climes of Madhyamaheshwar. Since Shiva was annoyed with them
for their conduct during the Kurukshetra war, he tried to avoid them by
assuming the animal form of a bull or Nandi and hid himself in the Himalayan
Garhwal region. But the determined Pandavas, after sighting Shiva in the form
of the bull grazing in the hills of Guptakashi, tried to forcibly hold the bull
by its tail and hind legs. But the bull disappeared into the ground to reappear
later in his original self of Lord Shiva at five places; in the form of a hump
at Kedarnath, in the shape of bahu  at
Tungnath, with his face at Rudranath, his nabhi  and stomach at Madhyamaheswar and his hair called
jata at Kalpeshwar.Pandavas, pleased with the revelation of Lord Shiva at five
places in different forms, built temples at these five places, worshipped him
and attained salvation with blessings of Shiva.Priests at this temple are from South India and at this
particular temple they are called Jangamas of the Lingayat cast who hail from
Mysore in Karnataka state.The worship at this temple starts from a specified time
period from the beginning of the summer months after the winter and lasts till
October/November from start of the winter season when the temple precincts are
not accessible due to snow conditions.During the winter period, the symbolic idol of the god is
shifted with religious formalities to Ukhimath for continued worship.A navel-shaped Shiva-lingam made of black stone, is
enshrined in the sanctum. There are two other smaller shrines, one for Shiva’s
consort Parvati and the other dedicated to the Ardhanarishwara, a half-Shiva
half-Parvati image. To the right of the main temple there is a small temple
where the image of Saraswati made of marble is installed in the sanctum.