Pancha Dwaraka

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  WHAT IT IS: The Pancha Dwaraka, or Five Dwarakas, is a sacred pilgrimage circuit across western India that honors the regal, intimate, compassionate and protecting aspects of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. It comprises the Dwarakadhish Jagat Mandir at Dwaraka, Bet Dwaraka, the Ranchhodraiji Temple at Dakor, the Shrinathji Temple at Nathdwara, and the Dwarkadhish Temple at Kankroli.
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  WHY VISIT / CHANT: Devotional tradition, rooted in the Bhagavata Purana and the Skanda Purana, teaches that beholding the Lord at these five sanctums releases the soul from the three kinds of suffering, washes away the sins of many lifetimes, and grants refuge at the lotus feet of Sri Hari.
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  WHEN TO VISIT: October to March offers cool and pleasant weather. Major festival occasions include Janmashtami, Radhashtami, Annakut (the mountain-of-food offering) and Govardhan Puja, Holi, and Tulsi Vivah.
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  WHERE: Gujarat and southern Rajasthan, from the Arabian Sea coast at Dwaraka and Bet Dwaraka, through central Gujarat at Dakor, to the Aravalli hills near Udaipur at Nathdwara and the shore of Rajsamand Lake at Kankroli.
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  HOW (VIDHI & RULES):
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  Yatra Route: Begin at Dwarakadhish in Dwaraka, cross by boat to Bet Dwaraka, travel east to Dakor, and then north to Nathdwara and Kankroli. This is a common pilgrim sequence, and devotees may also arrange it by road convenience.
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  Snana and Purification: Take a holy bath at the Gomti Ghat in Dwaraka, where the river meets the sea, before the first darshan.
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  Temple Dress Code: Traditional and modest attire, with dhoti and kurta for men and saree or salwar kameez for women. Footwear and leather items stay outside the temples.
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  Offerings: Tulsi manjaris, butter and sugar candy, and flattened rice at Bet Dwaraka in remembrance of Sudama.

According to the Bhagavata Purana, Canto 10, chapter 50, Bhagavan Sri Krishna chose to move the people of Mathura away from repeated attacks. He asked the divine architect Vishvakarma to raise a splendid city in the western sea. This city was Dvaravati, or Dwaraka, where the Lord reigned as Dwarakadhish and upheld righteousness.

Devotional tradition teaches that the Lord's presence is not confined to a single city. At Bet Dwaraka, the Lord is remembered as having joyfully accepted the simple flattened rice brought by His childhood friend Sudama, whose story is told in the Bhagavata Purana, Canto 10, chapters 80 and 81. At Dakor, the Lord is believed to have come from Dwaraka to dwell with His aged devotee Bodana in the twelfth century, and is worshiped there as Ranchhodrai.

At Nathdwara in Mewar, the image of Shrinathji, the child Krishna lifting Mount Govardhan, is the heart of the Pushtimarga, the Path of Grace taught by Sri Vallabhacharya. It came to Mewar from Braj in the seventeenth century, and tradition says the chariot carrying it halted at the village of Sihad, which was understood as the Lord's wish to remain there. At Kankroli on the shore of Rajsamand Lake, the Dwarkadhishji image, one of the seven principal images of the Pushtimarga, is worshiped in a temple that completes the circuit in the Rajasthan hills.

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  Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya (8th Century CE): Tradition remembers him as founding the Dwaraka Sharada Peetham, the western seat of the four monastic centers.
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  Sri Vallabhacharya and Sri Vitthalnathji (15th to 16th Century CE): Established the Pushtimarga and shaped the daily seva traditions of Shrinathji and the other principal images.
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  Bodana and Gangabai: The devoted couple of Dakor, remembered for walking to Dwaraka with a Tulsi plant, whose devotion, tradition says, brought the Lord to Dakor.
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  Mirabai (16th Century CE): The Rajput princess and saint-poet whose songs of longing for Krishna are linked by tradition with Dwaraka, where she is said to have merged into the Lord's image.
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  Narsinh Mehta (15th Century CE): The poet-saint of Gujarat, whose Krishna bhajans are sung in every Gujarati household.

Reflect on the Lord of Dwaraka with the opening invocation of the Shrimad Bhagavata Mahatmya, which is chanted before the reading of the Bhagavata:

Saccidānanda-rūpāya viśvotpatty-ādi-hetave ।

Tāpatraya-vināśāya śrī-kṛṣṇāya vayaṁ numaḥ ॥