The sound of religious chants clubbed with waves of the Arabian Sea reverberated through the air around Gujarat’s Somnath temple, believed to be the first of India’s 12 holy Jyotirlingas — the spot where Lord Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light, according to Hindu mythology.
On the fourth day of our trip on Friday, we de-boarded from the ‘Garvi Gujarat’ train at the Veraval railway station at around 9am and headed to a hotel to freshen up. At around 2.30pm, after having lunch and checking-out, we went to the Somnath Temple that lies at the meeting of Kapila, Hiran and Saraswati rivers. The temple is built on the shore of the Arabian Sea on the western coast of the Indian subcontinent.
The sacred land here has both Shiva and Krishna — it is not only the land where the first Jyotirling, Shree Somnath, emerged but also the land where Lord Krishna is believed to have left his mortal form.
The Somnath Temple has high security and no cell phones, cameras or other electronic items are allowed. Outside the temple, there are free lockers to keep visitors’ belongings safe.
After walking some distance through a number of security checks, we finally reached the grand seven-storied structure with a 155-feet-high ‘Shikhar’. Chalukya architectural patterns can be seen on the structure. The architectural beauty of the temple mirrors the masonry skills of Sampuras, who are Gujarat’s master masons.
The temple consists of a ‘Garbhgruh’, ‘Sabhamandap’ and ‘Nrityamandap’. The ‘Kalash’ at the top of the ‘Shikhar’ weighs 10 tonnes and the ‘Dhwajdand’ is 27 feet tall and one foot in circumference. The ‘Abadhit Samudra Marg’, Tirth Stambh (arrow) indicates the unobstructed sea route to the South Pole.
Outside the main temple, there are replicas of all the 12 Jyotirlingas, along with different ‘roop’ of Shiva.
The temple’s positioning is quite unique as it is said not a single piece of land is visible from the Somnath seashore until Antarctica.
According to the inscription written in Sanskrit on the coast, only the sea exists between the temple and the southern part of the planet and there is no land.
As per official data, the ‘pran-pratishtha’ at the existing temple was done on May 11, 1951, by then President Rajendra Prasad. The construction of the current structure is credited to Sardar Patel, who visited the ruins of Somnath Temple on November 13, 1947.
However, it is said the first temple was built 7,99,25,105 years ago as derived from the traditions of Prabhas Khand of Skandpuran.
This pilgrimage is one of the oldest and finds its reference in the ancient texts, including Shreemad Bhagavat and Shivpuran.
The shore temple of Somnath is believed to have been built in four phases — in gold by Lord Soma, in silver by Ravi, in wood by Lord Krishna and in stone by King Bhimadeva.
Next to the temple lies the Somnath beach where a 16-feet statue of Lord Hanuman was inaugurated last year. The entry to the beach is ticketed at Rs 5 per person.
The visit to the temple and the beach took us around three hours and the next stop was Bhalka Teerth — one of the most magnificent temples of Somnath city.
The temple at Bhalka Teerth is known as Mahaprabhuji’s Bethak and a Tulsi tree has been planted in Lord Krishna’s honour.
Banyan trees dot the courtyard of the spectacular Krishna temple that is built in sandstone. Inside the shrine is an unusual idol of Shri Krishna in a semi-reclining position. The temple also contains a beautiful ‘tribhangi’ idol of Lord Krishna playing his flute.
The temple commemorates the episode when a poacher, Jara, mistakenly hit the Lord with his arrow, thinking it’s a deer. Krishna left for his heavenly abode after this, according to the scriptures.
From there, we headed back to our train, which will take us to Dwarka for the fifth day of the tour through an overnight journey.
News18 is travelling with the IRCTC-operated Bharat Gaurav ‘Garvi Gujarat’ train. The eight-day journey started on Tuesday and will cover major tourist destinations of the western Indian state.
For Saturday, Dwarkadish temple, Rukmini Mandir and Nageshwar Jyotirlinga are on the list along with Beyt Dwarka.
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