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!