First, the clarification that always needs making: this is not Srinagar, Kashmir. This is Srinagar Garhwal — a completely different town, in a completely different state, at a completely different altitude. They share a name (Srinagar means "beautiful city" in Sanskrit) and almost nothing else.
Srinagar Garhwal sits at approximately 560 metres on the banks of the Alaknanda river, about 107 kilometres from Rishikesh in the Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. It is the largest town between Rishikesh and Joshimath. And most travellers on the Badrinath highway drive past it without a second look.
A capital that was
This was not always a place people ignored. Srinagar Garhwal was the capital of the Garhwal Kingdom for centuries. King Ajay Pal, who unified the scattered chiefdoms and garhis (forts) of the region during 1506-1512 CE, shifted the capital here from Chandpur Garhi. The town remained the seat of Garhwali power until the Gorkha invasion of 1803-1804, when Nepali forces overran the kingdom. The Gorkhas held Srinagar until 1815, when the British East India Company defeated them and divided the territory — the eastern portion became British Garhwal, and the western portion was returned to the Garhwal royal family, who moved their capital to the new town of Tehri.
The old city of Srinagar was largely destroyed in 1894 when a natural dam at Gohna Lake upstream burst and the resulting flood devastated the town, washing away most of the historic structures.
What is here now
Today, Srinagar Garhwal is defined by two things: the Alaknanda and the university.
The Alaknanda here is wide and braided — by this point in its course, the river has already gathered several major tributaries and moves with authority through a broad, flat valley. The valley floor at Srinagar is one of the widest points along the entire Alaknanda corridor, which is why a town of this size could develop here in the first place. The flat land is conspicuous after kilometres of tight gorge driving.
Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University — established in 1973 and elevated to Central University status in 2009 — gives the town a student population and a different energy from the purely pilgrimage-and-transit towns further up the valley. There are bookshops, cafes that stay open past nine in the evening, and a covered market area with shops ranging from hardware to textiles.
The bypass problem
The Char Dham highway expansion shifted the main flow of traffic to a bypass that skirts the town's eastern edge. For most Badrinath-bound travellers, Srinagar registers as a petrol pump, a cluster of dhabas, and a sign — and then it is behind them. The town that was once the most important in the entire Garhwal hills has become a drive-through.
This is a loss, if a commercially understandable one. The 2013 Kedarnath floods hit Srinagar badly — the Alaknanda surged, portions of the town and the university campus flooded, and the NHPC powerhouse was destroyed. Evidence of the damage is still visible along the waterfront, where rebuilt embankments and gaps in the building line mark what was lost.
Why you might stop
Srinagar is not a place with a single must-see monument. It is a place with a particular atmosphere — the atmosphere of a real town with a university, a history, a covered market, and residents who live here year-round rather than just for the pilgrimage season.
The Dhari Devi temple, dedicated to a form of Goddess Kali and considered the guardian deity of the Char Dham Yatra, is located about 15 kilometres from Srinagar on the Badrinath highway, positioned on a platform in the middle of the Alaknanda river. It is one of the most revered temples in the Garhwal region.
If you have twenty minutes and are not on a strict schedule, the detour off the bypass into the town itself is worth it. Not for any single viewpoint, but for the reminder that this valley has been inhabited and important for a very long time — for reasons that have nothing to do with Char Dham quotas or pilgrimage season traffic.