Priest of Badrinathdham (Pandas)

The system of Pandas and Rawals or poojaris is quite different in Sri Badrinath and Kedarnath on one side and that of Gangotri and Yamunotri on the other side. People salute this scholarly community of eminent persons for their marvellous contribution in shaping the present day popularity of this Great shrine.
One must think of those days when the entire route from Haridwar to Sri Badrinath was trekked. These educated and highly intelligent people had an elaborate network of tourist facilities at their command.The entire land of Garhwal must be thankful to these philosophers friends and guides people who visited people around the entire country and invited people to come for pilgrimage to Sri Badrivishal ji. They are voluntary advertising people. They had been popularising this great shrine and creating immense source of employments and economy to the entire area.

History of Pandas

Pandas from Badrinath are originally Bhatt Brahmins of south India belonging to Ramanujam sect. They live mainly in Devprayag(224 kms from Badrinath and 70 kms from Reshikesh) and in Badrinath also. They also live in some other villages around Devprayag, Main villages are Ranakot, Pali, Koti, Dhayani etc. Their main surnames are Dhyani's, Kotiyal's, Babulkar's, Paliwal's, Dangwal's.
The modern age has its impact on the younger generation of Badrinath's purohits. Most of them have switched over to other modern day professions while a elect few are modernising the tourism Industry.
These purohits have records of all those people who visited Sri Badrinath for the last 500-600 years.All the pilgrims develop sentimental bond when they see details of their ancestors names and signatures which are kept safely century after century by the scholarly Panda Samaj (Priest Community) of Sri Badrinath.