Believed to be the place where Lakshman meditated, the lake is also called Lokpal, another name for Lakshman.However the Sikh name derives from yet another appellation: Hemkund or Lake of Snow. Hindu pilgrims often visited the lake on their way to and from Badrinath.And in 1963 a Sikh religious scholar determined that this was the very lake the 10th Sikh Guru,Gobind Singh had described as being a place of meditation in past lives. By 1939, a small gurudwara had been built on the lakeshore in token of this belief which was expanded in 1974.Since then; Hemkund has come to occupy a significant place in the religious topography of the Sikh faith