Dwarka-Somnath trip – Part 1

After the solo trip to Kasi in April earlier this year, the travel bug bit me again in September and I decided to head off to Dwarka and Somnath around Onam time. These two destinations were on my list during my time in Indore but somehow the trip never materialized.

The way the itinerary was planned, the onward journey was a long 45-hour train journey from Aluva to Dwarka. I was making a long trip by train after a gap of 20 years. Boredom and cleanliness of the train were two things I was apprehensive about.

To deal with the first point, I downloaded quite a few movies and videos on my tablet. I actually enjoyed the journey. On the cleanliness front, I was happy to note that Indian railways has outsourced the maintenance to private parties. They regularly cleaned the compartment and the toilets. Of course, towards the end of the journey the toilets were not exactly smelling of roses!

Enough of the train journey – I will probably pen a blog post later on some of my observations / experiences.

Friday 9^th September

After checking into the hotel on Friday evening, I took a shower and decided to go to the Dwarkadhish temple.

As you are probably aware, it is believed that the original Dwarka city was swallowed by the sea approximately 30 years after the Mahabharata war. A temple at the current site is believed to have been built by Krishna’s grandson.

The modern day Dwarka is a small town located at the confluence of the Gomti river and the sea. Dwarka is one of the holiest sites for Sanathana dharma followers. It has the unique distinction of being the only holy place which is one of the Char Dhams and is also part of the Sapta Puri (seven sacred sites) list.

Krishna is supposed to have spent the majority of his life here at Dwarka but most of the purana stories are about his life in Vrindavan and Mathura where he spent around 20 of his 125 years on earth. Aside from the Mahabharata war (which happened elsewhere) there are very few stories (leelas) from his Dwarka days that are well known.

At the Dwarkadhish temple, the idol of Krishna is decked up as the king. One misconception many have is that Krishna was the king of Dwarka. The term Dwarkadeesh / Dwarkadhish indicates that he was the emperor. The Yadava clan structure was more like a republic.  Technically Krishna was the protector of Dwarka. Semantics aside, Krishna was the one his subjects loved and looked to for protection.

Back to my travels – the temple was crowded and I decided to do a pradhikshina first and take darshan of the minor shrines. The main structure/tower was enchanting and I spent a few minutes admiring it (photography is not allowed inside the temple, so I took a snap from afar which does not do justice to the majesty of the temple). The queue to take darshan seemed to getting longer and I decided to take a quick darshan from afar (climbed on one of the pillars and got a glimpse of Dwarkadhish from 30 feet away).

  

The fact that I only had a peek at the deity was bugging me so I decided to visit the nearby ISKCON temple. There were only a couple of folks there so I had a few peaceful minutes to myself.

After puja it was time for ‘pet-puja’. After a couple of days of train food I was yearning for a wholesome meal. I had seen a video on YouTube extolling the virtues of Shreenath dining hall. I went there expecting sweet(ish) curries. They served Kathiyawadi thali which was very tasty but spicy as well. 

The above pictures are of the pickles they served. In one of the pictures I took you can see jaggery. This helps temper the spicy food. Of course the unlimited chass (buttermilk) also helped.

Saturday 10^th September

The previous evening I had booked bus tickets for a half day trip to visit attractions outside the city. It was a mini bus and we started by 7:30 AM. The first stop was Rukmini mandir.  It is located just outside Dwarka town in the middle of an open field.

The story goes that once Krishna and Rukmini invited Sage Durvasa to Dwarka. He agreed to visit them on one condition. He wanted them to pull the cart. After a while Rukmini felt thirsty and Krishna pushed the ground with his toe and drew water out. Durvasa was incensed. Neither did the couple offer him water nor did they ask him for permission to drink! He cursed them at once. Krishna and Rukmini could not live together for 12 years (hence the distance between the temples!). Furthermore there would be no fresh water available in Dwarka. Even today drinking water is transported from outside the city.

As you can see from the photographs above, this is a beautiful temple with exquisite carvings. Being poornima day, there was a huge rush of local pilgrims but I managed to get proper darshan for a change.

Outside there was this large gathering of sadhus seated in an orderly fashion. Pilgrims would approach one of them and make an offering. Then all of them would en-mass bless him/her. I was informed that the proceeds would be shared at the end of the day. Socialism in practice!

The next stop was Nageshwar mandir about 20 kms away. This is one of the 12 jyothirlinga temples in India.

As per legend Lord Shiva appeared here to save his devotee from a demon called Daruka who used to reside in Daruka vanam (forest). In modern times this is a small hamlet. Gulshan Kumar (of T series fame) built a tall 80 foot statue of Shiva here and also modernized the temple.

There was not much rush at the temple and I had good darshan. One jarring note was the level of commercialization inside the temple. The guide (more about him later) who accompanied us in the bus had forewarned us to ignore the pandits who were milling around with their sales pitch.

The next stop was Gopi Talav which was 5 kms from Nageshwar. Gopi Talav is a small lake situated in a rural hamlet. One story behind this lake is that this was the location of the last raas leela which the Gopis had with Lord Krishna (they visited him from Vrindavan). After the leela they gave up their lives in the lake. As per the legend, the Gopis turned into sand and merged with the earth. The soil here is yellowish in colour and is supposed to have medicinal properties. The locals sell the hardened soil in small fragrant blocks called Gopi chandan.

The ’guide’ had warned us that there would be locals trying to coax tourists to visit the small shrines by the lake – and to stay away from them.  He also told us another story about this place.

It seems Arjuna was getting very arrogant after the Kurukshetra war and Krishna played a leela to bring him down to earth. He requested Arjuna to accompany the Gopis on their return journey to Vrindavan and to safeguard them. Enroute they were accosted by tribal warriors and to Arjuna’s surprise he was defeated. The final outcome as far as the Gopis were concerned was the same as the earlier story.

Back to the present, it was calming to spend a few minutes by the lake by myself with the quaint little shrines nearby.

Remember the guide who  told us stories about the attractions and warned us about cheats? He was a pandit wearing a spotless white kurta-pyjama. As the bus proceeded from Gopi Talav to Beyt Dwarka, he gave us a detailed backstory of the place. Beyt Dwarka is supposed to be the location of  the residential palaces of Krishna during the original Dwarka days. During the deluge this place was saved and today it is a small island off the coast near Okha.

Beyt Dwarka derives its name from the Hindi/Sanskrit word for gift – as per legend it was here that Sudama met his childhood friend Krishna and gifted poha (hindi) / aval (malayalam).

There is an old Dwarkadhish temple built at the site of the original palace(s) on the island.

As per the pandit, today there are around 1000 residents out of which the majority are of Mohamadden faith. There are around 50-60 pandits whose major source of income is the tourist trade (water on the island is saline and thre is no agriculture– remember Durvasa’s curse?). He mentioned that he was not actually a guide but doing this for the benefit of the pandit community.

Then followed an passionate speech the gist of which was – ‘You are visiting quite a few temples during your travels in this holy land. But the first set of Gods’ are your parents. On this holy day of poornima, you will get ‘punyam’ if you donate two kilos of rice to a brahman (in your parents’ names). You can pay me a token amount (if you wish) and I can pass on to the needy’.

I was sitting next to an elderly Gujarati aunty and her eyes were filled with tears. Needless to say her purse was the first to open up when he came around for collection.

The main shrine at Beyt Dwarka would close at 1 PM and there was a 20 minute ferry ride to get across the sea. I quickly rushed to the boat.

The main temple was half a kilometer away from the boat jetty on the island and it was crowded. But the queue was a fast moving one so I had a quick darshan in the sweltering midday heat.

Heading back to Okha I decided to try out a faster, smaller boat which cost a bit more but was not crowded. The journey back to Dwarka was uneventful and I reached by around 2:30 PM. By then I had gulped down 4 bottles of water (it was hot and humid in Dwarka-Okha – not the best time to visit. It would be better to visit between November and February) and had no food since early morning. I sat down to a simple but tasty Gujarati thali at the restaurant attached to my hotel.

<to be continued>