Dwarka-Somnath trip – Part 3

This is the third and final part of the Dwarka-Somnath travelogue (Part 2 - https://chellakilli.blogspot.com/2022/10/dwarka-somnath-trip-part-2.html) 

Monday, 12th September …cont’d

After spending an hour at the peaceful Golok Dham complex, I reluctantly decided to move on. The next stop was the nearby Sharda math.  

Besides housing a Shivalinga (Kamnath Mahadev) and a couple of other deities, the complex also had an idol of Adi Shankaracharya. It appears that Adi Shankara lived and meditated here for some time (a few months?)

The next stop was the newly built Sri Ram mandir. This is a modern temple and very well maintained.  

The view(s) from the temple and the surrounding complex were beautiful.

Just behind the Sri Ram mandir is an ancient temple of Parashuram. 

From the condition of the temple pond and the surrounding walls, it looks like the authorities have also chipped in to help retain the ‘ancient’ feel 😊 

The Chandrabhaga Shakti Peeth was a couple of hundred meters away by walk from the Sri Ram temple. Situated very close to the sea, this is a holy site – one of the 52 Shakti peeths. It being midday there was not a soul in sight. I spent a few minutes there by myself and walked back to the auto rickshaw.

Ramesh bhai then said he would take me to the very ancient Veneshwar Mahadev temple. I had done my homework on this one and surprised him with my knowledge of this temple. He still managed to enlighten me on some finer points the Internet did not seem to be aware of! 

People say the current structure was built sometime in the 13th century. As you can see from the above photograph, though they have whitewashed the main structure and tried to make it as unattractive as possible, the unique pyramidal ‘shikara’ can still be seen. 

As per legend, during one of the first invasions (Ghazni), the then Raja’s daughter took the Shiva linga from the original Somnath site, brought it here and then merged into it when cornered by the attackers. Ramesh claims that the Shiva linga is cracked and even today a small tuft of the princess’s hair juts out from the linga. 

Stories aside, this quiet temple was located in a peaceful rustic locale with some friendly village folk roaming in and around the small temple (actually it was just behind the Somnath trust complex which houses the pilgrim facilities)

Ramesh informed me that for the local devotees, this temple was as important as the main Somnath temple. It appears that when the Somnath trust was modernizing the major attractions and improving pilgrim facilities, they approached those in charge of this ancient temple. After a few discussions, the temple authorities felt that over commercialization would dilute the relevance of the place. Therefore it still remains a quaint little temple with cows in the courtyard and a couple of villagers selling trinkets nearby. Though it lacked seating facilities, it was very nice to spend a few minutes here. 

Soon it was time to say thank you and good bye to the enthusiastic Ramesh and grab a quick lunch at the trust facility. 

 The food at Maheshwari bhavan canteen was homely (not spicy) but wholesome. The above pic was take later during dinner time.  It was a no nonsense self service style canteen.

By mid afternoon it started raining – and for the next 24 hours it rained on and off. 

I had planned to visit the Prabhas Pathan museum in the evening and decided to go ahead armed with an umbrella.  The museum houses relics from destroyed temples/structures from the past few centuries. Though rich in heritage (some of the relics go back more than 1000 years), the museum was not well kept. Though all of the relics were numbered and categorized, most of the them were kept in the open at the mercy of the elements.

From there I headed towards the Somnath temple area.  

Since photography is prohibited inside, these are the only three pictures I took of the complex – and may I add they do not do justice to the temple or its surroundings.

My destination was the Ahilyabai Holkar Somnath temple also known as the old Somnath temple. This is just a couple of hundred meters away from the modern temple.

As per legend, the linga worshipped here is the original jyothirlinga which was hidden during one of the latter invasions. It appears that the location of the linga came to Queen Ahilyabai Holkar in a dream and she set out getting the temple built and the linga consecrated (in 1783). 

Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar’s life and exploits from the 18th century are an incredible story. This amazing Maratha queen’s (from Indore/Malwa region)  spiritual/cultural influence spread far beyond the borders of her kingdom and covers nearly the whole of North and West India. Her story is one for another day. 

At the entrance to the pathway to the main Somnath temple is this statue of Hamirji Gohil. He was a 16 year old warrior who sacrificed his life defending Somnath temple during Tughlaq's raid in 1401

I had plans to visit Somnath beach but there no was point going there - what with the rain getting heavier. I went back to the trust, grabbed a quick dinner at the canteen and retired early for the night as I was very tired.

Tuesday, 13th September

Learning from my experience from the day before, I decided to visit the Somnath temple once again early in the morning. It was raining continuously and that meant there were fewer visitors than the previous morning. 

I stayed on for a couple of hours and attended the morning aarti too – this was a great experience.  By this time there were a couple of hundred pilgrims. Crowd control at the temple is very disciplined -  no one was allowed to loiter in front of the sanctum sanctorum for long.

This meant that I had to keep moving in the queue, take darshan, rejoin the queue and do this in a loop about a dozen times!

Since the rain was getting heavier, there was no point in staying on in the complex out in the open.

After breakfast, I waited for a break in the rain to go outside again.  Around late morning, when the rain Gods took a break, I quickly took a rickshaw and visited the Golok dham area once again. I spent some time there before heading back.

I was to take the overnight train from Verwal to Ahmedabad. There was a nice ending to the Somnath leg of the yatra. Remember Ramesh-bhai from the previous day? It so happened that as I came out of the front gate of the trust, his was the rickshaw that appeared before me! Ramesh told me warmly that it was destined that he would transport me to Verawal 😊

After an uneventful overnight train trip I rushed to Ahmedabad airport. A few hours later I was in the air heading back to Kerala.

Hope you enjoyed reading my travelogue. Please do post your comments. Bye!

Dwarka-Somnath trip - Part 2

In the first part of this series (https://chellakilli.blogspot.com/2022/09/dwarka-somnath-trip-part-1.html), I started writing about my experiences travelling to Dwarka.

Saturday 10^th September. .cont’d

After returning from Beyt Dwarka, post lunch I took a break for a couple of hours and then decided to visit the Gomti ghat area just behind the main shrine. 

Since I had a problem with shoe bite (and a lot more walking to look forward to during this trip), I visited the first shoe shop I saw. What is the big deal about a visit to a shoe shop you might ask?

On hearing that I was from Kerala, the owner (Kamlesh-bhai) stopped showing me his wares, called his aged father and sat me down for a long conversation. They wanted to know more about the major temples in Kerala, specifically on when and how to get to Sabarimala. Half an hour and a cup of tea later, I managed to leave the shop with a new pair of comfortable slippers, and of course after satisfying their curiosity (post script – I am writing this 3 weeks after the trip. Kamlesh bhai has been in touch and I am glad to report that his parents are visiting Sabarimala this mandala kalam (season) 😊

Reliance industries have built a ropeway bridge named Sudama Setu across the Gomti river. One has to pay a small fee to use the bridge to cross the river.

The view from Sudama Setu was amazing. You can see the Gomti river merging with the sea. The small spire you see in the distance is that of the ancient Samudra Narayan mandir.

On the other side of the bridge is the Lakshmi Narayan mandir.

In the same complex, there is a statue of Durvasa rishi. After cursing Krishna and Rukmini he is supposed to have come here and performed tapas to atone for what he did.

It is also said that the Pandavas also spent time here in penance after losing everything in the gambling match with the Kauravas. As I mentioned in the last blog post fresh water is non existent in these parts. Apparently the Pandavas invoked their powers, created kunds (wells) and drew fresh water from five far off rivers (Lakshmana from Badrinath (Yudhisthira kund) , Jambuwanti from Gaya (Bhima kund), Gomti from Lucknow (Arjuna kund),  Ushawati from Goa (Nakula kund) and  Chandrabhaga from Orissa (Nakula kund).

These five wells still exist and there was this holy(?) baba standing by them who would draw water out (for a small fee of twenty rupees). I requested him to get water for me from the five wells. 

The water tasted sweet and even more interestingly the taste of the water from each of the wells were different from each other! A couple of other tourists asked the baba for a drink and he denied them as they were not travelling with me. I coaxed him to give them a sip of the water as well. Maybe he was not as holy as I imagined!

Then  I headed back across the river and visited the Samudra Narayan shrine. 

It was a simple shrine, very impressive from the outside. The view from the promenade by the sea was amazing. I parked myself on one of the benches and waited for sunset. Later I returned to the hotel and had fruits for dinner.

Sunday 11th September

Early in the morning, I engaged an autorickshaw and visited the Bhadkeshwar Mahadev mandir.

 

This is a small Shiva shrine situated on a small piece of land 50 meters out into the sea. During times of high tide the pilgrims need to wade through ankle/knee deep water to get to the shrine. During the monsoon months, the water level rises even further. It is said that for exactly one day a year the sea covers the linga completely and performs abhishekam!

The views of the far off Dwarkadish temple on one side of this shrine and the lighthouse on the other side were amazing.

Nearby is the Gita mandir

The temple was in a lonely building in a large lonely campus and there was not a soul in sight.

Heading back into town, I was informed that the Dwarkadish temple closes for an hour in the morning. So I went for  breakfast and spent some time by the busy Gomti ghat. In the mornings, the river rises up the ghat steps (water from the sea also gushes inland) whereas if you noticed from my picture from the evening before, the river is calm and the water level is low.

The Dwarkadish temple was even more crowded than the first day. I had to make do with darshan of the main deity from my usual spot (hugging the pillar)!

During lunch (at the crowded Maheshwari bhavan), I met an interesting solo traveler like myself. On hearing that I was from Kerala, he engaged me in a long conversation on multiple topics like spirituality, politics and development. He was a retired engineer hailing from Jodhpur. After we had our fill, he did not even allow me to pay stating that being a first time visitor from a far off place, I was a ‘mehman’ or guest. We wished each other well and parted ways.

By evening, it was time to say goodbye to Krishna’s capital. I took the late night train to Verawal.

Monday, 12^th September

Though the train was supposed to travel all the way to Somnath, it terminated at Verawal a few kilometers away – the reason being that Somnath railway station is being expanded and renovated.

I  had booked my accommodation at one of the facilities maintained by the Somnath trust. As I was soon to find out (unlike Dwarka) the Government has invested quite a lot in improving the infrastructure in Somnath. For starters, the trust itself offers accommodation of various types (from dormitory rooms all the way to deluxe rooms). Well before day break I had checked in, taken a shower and proceeded to the main temple leaving all electronic items in the room.

Somnath, as you may be aware, is the first among the 12 Jyothirlinga shrines in India. It is located in the Prabhas pathan area of Gujarat. Being a rich and famous temple from ancient times, it has been a constant target for destruction by invaders. It has been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times.

The current temple was built soon after independence thanks to the efforts of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. It is a beautiful structure situated by the sea surrounded by manicured lawns and is well maintained. The sanctum sanctorum is gold plated and the linga is a wonderful sight to behold. There were very few pilgrims this early in the morning and I had very good darshan. I spent some time roaming around the campus and rested on one of the benches enjoying the cool early morning sea breeze.

Within the temple campus, there is a pillar called Baan Stambh at the top of which is an arrow that points south. Apparently, if you travel south from here, you will not cross any piece of land till you reach the south pole! Amazing that our ancestors figured that out.

After a quick breakfast at the trust facility, I decided to hire an autorickshaw to visit the major attractions. Not only was Ramesh-bhai very knowledgeable, he was also more than eager to share his knowledge.

The first stop was Bhalka Tirth a few kilometers from the Somnath temple. This is the place where Lord Krishna is said to have been shot at by a hunter named Jara (who thought the movement in the forest was that of a deer). The arrow is supposed to have struck and pierced his toe. Ramesh-bhai went on to say that as per the story Jara was mortified but Krishna pacified him by telling him that Jara was King Vali in a previous birth and this was payback for Rama shooting at him while hidden in the forest!

There is a well maintained modern temple there.

Interestingly most Krishna idols have him in a standing posture. The one here is in a reclining posture blessing Jara.

The next stop was Ban Ganga. This was the spot by the sea from where Jara is supposed to have had a bath and prayed before proceeding on his hunting expedition. There are two partially submerged Shiva lingas here and one a few hundred meters away

 

The Bhidbhanjan Mahadev temple was by the seashore at Ban Ganga. This is an ancient temple and I heard an interesting story from Ramesh. It appears that after one of the construction/destruction cycles, the then ruler ordered that the Somnath temple be rebuilt - and in parallel a replica also be built 3-4 Kms away. This was to act as an decoy (to buy time) in case of future attacks from the sea.

The next stop was Triveni sangam. This is the confluence of the Hiran, Kapila and the Saraswathi rivers. The first two can be seen from this spot but the third is a mythical river.

Krishna is supposed to taken a final dip here after getting shot at Bhalka Tirth. This place was crowded with a scores of pilgrims taking bath at the ghat.

100 meters away from Triveni sangam is a very ancient Surya temple. This is one of the few surviving Surya temples from this area. The structure looked very ancient.

Adjacent to the Surya temple is the Hingalmataji Gufa – a narrow cave where the pandavas were supposed to have spent time meditating during their travels here.

It has a narrow passage through which only one person can enter at a time.

A few hundred meters from Triveni ghat is Golok dham situated on the banks of the Hiran river. Situated in a beautiful and peaceful locale, this small but well maintained complex has quite a few small shrines and spots. The most important is the Golok Dham/ Dehotsarg Tirth. This is the place where Krishna is supposed to have left his physical body (after the dip at Triveni sangam)

There is a representative footprint installed to mark the spot. Next to this is a cave called Baldev Gufa. It is believed that it was here that (after Krishna left his mortal body) Balarama transformed into his serpent form (Anantha) and went underground.

Besides a couple of other quaint cute little shrines, the complex also houses the Gita mandir.

My new friend Ramesh enlightened me on the backstory. Lord Krishna gave Gitopedesh not once but twice during his lifetime. The first was in the backdrop of the Kurukshetra war and the recipient was Arjuna. The second time was at this location just before he left for Vaikunta and the audience was Uddhava, Krishna’s friend and follower. Uddhava Gita is the famous work documented thereafter.

<to be continued in the third and final part of this series>