Road trip to Gujarat – Dwarka
History of Dwarka :
The name, Dwarka literally means the “gateway to heaven”. According to the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna settled here after he defeated and killed his uncle Kansa at Mathura. Krishna created Dwarka by reclaiming 12 yojanas or 96 square kilometres (37 sq mi) of land from the sea. The city’s Dwarkadhish Temple (also called Jagat Mandir) dedicated to Krishna was originally built around 2,500 years ago by Vajranabh, the great grand son of Krishna, over the residential palace of Krishna.The current temple in Chaulukya style is constructed in 15-16th century.
Details of Dwarkadhish temple and Temple and Panchkui Tirth :
The temple has a five-story structure built on seventy-two pillars. The temple spire is 78.3m high.There are two entrances to the temple. The main entrance (north entrance) is called “Moksha Dwara”, the south entrance is called “Swarga Dwara” . The flag atop the temple shows the sun and the moon, which is believed to indicate that Krishna would be there till Sun and moon exist on earth. The flag is changed 5 times a day, but the symbol remains the same.
There are five sweet water wells called Panchkui associated with five Pandava brothers of Mahabharata at Panchkui Tirth. There is a bridge over the Gomti River that connects the mainland Dwarka with Panchkui island which is called the Sudama Setu.
Dwarka is one of the Chardhams along with Badrinath, Rameswaram and Puri , one of the Sapta Puri along with Ayodhya , Mathura , Haridwar, Varanasi , Kanchipuram and Ujjain and also one of the four matha’s (Peeta’s) founded by Adi Shankaracharya along with Sringeri ,Puri and Joshimath.
Travelogue:
From Nageswar Jyotirlinga temple we returned to Dwarka around 5:30 p.m. to visit the Dwarkadhish Temple. We went through the market street and Moksha Dwara for the darshan of Dwarkadhish.
The temple here is much crowded and took around an hour for the darshan. We spent some time in the temple after darshan, had dinner near the temple and returned back to the hotel room.
Day 5 We went to Panchkui island through Sudama Setu near Dwarkadhish temple.
The legend says that the Pandavas dug those wells. Even though the sea shore is very near and water in near by places is salty , water in those well’s is sweet and potable.
We went for a camel ride from there along the Gomti river to see the Arabian Sea.
After the camel ride we did some shopping there and started the journey to our next destination-Somnath.
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