The Saurashtra coast of Gujarat holds two shrines of the very first rank, about 230 km apart. Somnath is named first among the twelve Jyotirlingas in the classical stotram, and stands on the shore of the Arabian Sea at the place the Puranas call Prabhas Kshetra — where the moon was released from a curse, and where Sri Krishna left the world. Dwarka is one of the four original Char Dham, one of the Sapta Puri, and the capital city Krishna built and ruled — Dwarkadhish, the King of Dwarka. Most pilgrims do both in a single circuit, and this guide covers the scripture, the temples and the route together.
🙏 The Circuit at a Glance
- Somnath: first of the twelve Jyotirlingas, at Prabhas Patan, Veraval
- Bhalka Tirth: where Krishna was struck by the hunter's arrow
- Dwarka: one of the four Char Dham and one of the Sapta Puri
- Bet Dwarka: Krishna's residence, reached by boat; the Sudama episode
- Nageshwar: another of the twelve Jyotirlingas, between Dwarka and Bet
- Distance: Somnath ↔ Dwarka is about 230 km by road
📑 Table of Contents
- Somnath: The Curse of the Moon
- Why Somnath Is First Among the Twelve
- The Somnath Temple Today
- Prabhas Kshetra & Bhalka Tirth
- Dwarka: The City Krishna Built
- The Dwarkadhish Temple
- Gomti Ghat & the Panch Kuan
- Bet Dwarka & Sudama
- Nageshwar Jyotirlinga
- Dwarka Among the Char Dham
- Festivals of the Circuit
- Planning Your Yatra
- FAQs
📜 Somnath: The Curse of the Moon
The origin of Somnath is given in the Shiva Purana (Koti Rudra Samhita), the Skanda Purana (Prabhas Khanda, an entire section devoted to this region) and the Bhagavata Purana.
🌙 Twenty-seven daughters, one favourite
Daksha Prajapati gave his twenty-seven daughters — the nakshatras — in marriage to Chandra, the moon, on the condition that he treat them all equally. But Chandra loved only Rohini and neglected the rest. The slighted daughters complained to their father, who warned Chandra repeatedly and was ignored.
Daksha then cursed him with kshaya — wasting away. The moon began to shrink and lose his light night by night, and as he waned, the tides, the plants, the harvests and the rhythms that depend on him began to fail with him.
🔱 The penance at Prabhas
On the counsel of Brahma, Chandra came to Prabhas Kshetra on the western sea and performed severe penance to Shiva, worshipping a lingam and reciting the Mahamrityunjaya mantra for a long period. Shiva appeared and granted him relief — but a curse of Daksha could not be wholly undone. So Shiva modified it: the moon would wane for fifteen days and wax for fifteen days, dying and being reborn in an unending cycle.
That is the origin, in the Puranic account, of the lunar fortnights — the Krishna Paksha and Shukla Paksha on which the entire Hindu calendar runs. Chandra, restored, requested Shiva to remain at that spot, and Shiva did, as Somnath — Soma (the moon) + nath (lord): the Lord of the Moon.
✨ Why this story matters beyond the shrine
Every tithi you observe, every Ekadashi, Purnima and Amavasya, every fortnightly vrat, follows the cycle that this narrative explains. The Mahamrityunjaya mantra that Chandra is said to have used is from the Rig Veda (7.59.12) and is invoked to this day for exactly what it did for him — release from wasting and untimely death.
🔱 Why Somnath Is First Among the Twelve
The classical enumeration of the twelve Jyotirlingas begins with Somnath — "Somanatha in Saurashtra." The tradition holds it to be the first, and the temple describes itself as the Prathama Jyotirlinga. The Shiva Purana's account places the manifestation here at the beginning of the sequence, and every recitation of the stotram anywhere in India names this shrine before any other. See our guide to the 12 Jyotirlingas.
🛕 The Somnath Temple Today
🛕 Shree Somnath Jyotirlinga Temple
The temple stands on the shore, with the sea breaking against the wall below the sanctum. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over its history; the present structure was completed in 1951, built in the Chalukya style, on the initiative of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel after independence, and the temple's own literature treats the sequence of rebuildings as part of its identity.
On the sea wall behind the temple stands the Baan Stambh — an arrow pillar, of considerable antiquity, bearing an inscription stating that there is no landmass in a straight line from this point to the South Pole. Whatever its date, it is one of the sights every pilgrim is shown.
The temple performs three aartis daily — morning, midday and evening — and a well-known sound and light show is presented on the temple grounds after dark.
🏹 Prabhas Kshetra & Bhalka Tirth
🏹 Where Krishna left the world
The Bhagavata Purana (Canto 11) and the Mahabharata's Mausala Parva place the end of Krishna's earthly life at Prabhas. After the Yadava clan destroyed itself in a quarrel at Prabhas — the fulfilment of Gandhari's curse and of the sages' curse on Samba — Krishna withdrew into the forest and lay down beneath a pipal tree with one foot resting on his knee.
A hunter named Jara, seeing the reddish sole of the foot through the leaves and taking it for a deer, loosed an arrow that struck it. Realising what he had done, the hunter fell at Krishna's feet in terror. Krishna consoled him, told him that this had to happen, and departed for his own abode.
Bhalka Tirth, about five kilometres from Somnath, marks the spot. The Dehotsarg Tirth on the Hiran river nearby marks the place traditionally held to be where his body was cremated, at the Triveni Sangam where the Hiran, Kapila and the mythical Saraswati meet.
| Site at Prabhas | Distance from Somnath | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Bhalka Tirth | ~5 km | Where the hunter's arrow struck Krishna's foot |
| Dehotsarg / Triveni Sangam | ~3 km | Confluence of Hiran, Kapila and Saraswati; Krishna's cremation site by tradition |
| Gita Mandir | ~3 km | Temple with the Bhagavad Gita inscribed on its pillars |
| Bhidbhanjan Mahadev | In Prabhas Patan | Ancient Shiva shrine of the kshetra |
| Suraj Mandir | Near the temple | An old Sun temple of Prabhas Patan |
| Somnath Museum | Adjacent | Remains and sculpture from the earlier temples |
📜 Dwarka: The City Krishna Built
🌊 Why Krishna left Mathura
The Bhagavata Purana (Canto 10) and the Vishnu Purana relate that after Krishna killed Kamsa at Mathura, Kamsa's father-in-law Jarasandha, the king of Magadha, attacked Mathura repeatedly — seventeen times by the traditional count. Rather than let the people suffer an eighteenth siege, Krishna moved the entire population west, out of Jarasandha's reach.
He asked Vishwakarma to build a city; Vishwakarma replied that he would need land, and Krishna requested it from Samudra, the ocean, who withdrew and yielded twelve yojanas. On that reclaimed ground rose Dwarka — the city of gates — described in the Bhagavata as golden-walled, laid out in avenues and gardens, with harbours and assembly halls. Krishna ruled it as Dwarkadhish.
Because Krishna withdrew from Mathura rather than fight Jarasandha directly, he is called Ranchhod — "he who left the battlefield" — a name used with affection rather than reproach, and the deity at Dakor in Gujarat carries it.
✨ The submergence
The Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana both record that after Krishna's departure, Arjuna evacuated the surviving Yadava women and children, and the sea reclaimed Dwarka, taking back the land it had given. The tradition holds that the present city stands on the site of that submerged capital, and marine archaeological work has been carried out in the waters off the coast.
🛕 The Dwarkadhish Temple
🛕 Jagat Mandir — Sri Dwarkadhish
The temple is known as the Jagat Mandir. Tradition holds that the original shrine was built by Vajranabha, Krishna's great-grandson, over Krishna's own residential palace (Hari Griha). The present structure rises five storeys on seventy-two carved pillars, with a shikhara of about 78 metres.
Pilgrims enter by the Swarga Dwar (gate of heaven), which faces the Gomti, and exit by the Moksha Dwar (gate of liberation). The flag (dhwaja) on the shikhara — a large cloth bearing the sun and moon — is changed five times every day, and devotees offer the flag as a vow; the right to hoist it belongs to the Abhoti brahmin family by long tradition.
Adi Shankaracharya established the Sharada Peetha at Dwarka as the western Amnaya Peetha, and it stands near the temple.
🌊 Gomti Ghat & the Panch Kuan
💧 The traditional sequence at Dwarka
Pilgrims first descend the Gomti Ghat — the Gomti here is a small river meeting the sea, distinct from the Gomti of Uttar Pradesh — and bathe at the Sangam Narayan point where river and sea meet. Nearby are the Panch Kuan, five wells whose water pilgrims take in sequence before darshan. Only then do they climb the fifty-six steps to the Swarga Dwar and enter the Jagat Mandir.
Other shrines in the town include Rukmini Devi Temple about two kilometres away — pilgrims are told that Rukmini's temple stands apart from her husband's because of the curse of sage Durvasa, and that the yatra is incomplete without her darshan — along with Bhadrakali, Samudra Narayan and the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga on the road to Bet.
⛴️ Bet Dwarka & Sudama
⛴️ Bet Dwarka (Shankhodhar)
Bet Dwarka is an island roughly 30 km north of Dwarka, reached from Okha. It is held in tradition to be Krishna's actual residence — the place he lived, as distinct from Dwarka the capital where he ruled. The main temple, attributed in tradition to Rukmini and later to Vallabhacharya's lineage, holds Krishna with his queens.
Bet Dwarka is above all the site of the Sudama episode, one of the most loved passages in the Bhagavata Purana (Canto 10). Krishna's impoverished childhood friend came to him carrying a small bundle of poha (flattened rice) as a gift, too ashamed to offer it. Krishna took it from him and ate it, and without a word being asked, transformed Sudama's life. The temple marks the meeting, and offering poha and rice at Bet Dwarka remains customary.
The island is now connected to the mainland by the Sudarshan Setu cable-stayed bridge from Okha, which has replaced the ferry as the usual approach; boats still operate.
🔱 Nageshwar Jyotirlinga
🔱 Nageshwar Mahadev
On the road between Dwarka and Bet stands Nageshwar, another of the twelve Jyotirlingas, named in the stotram as "Nagesham Darukavane" — Nagesha in the Daruka forest. The Shiva Purana relates the story of the demon Daruka and his wife Daruki, and of the devotee Supriya, whom they imprisoned; when Supriya continued to chant "Om Namah Shivaya" and taught the other prisoners to do the same, Shiva appeared from the earth and destroyed Daruka, remaining afterwards as Nageshwar, the Lord of Serpents.
The site is marked by a very large seated Shiva statue visible from the road, and the lingam itself is in an underground sanctum. Note that three sites in India claim to be the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga — this one near Dwarka, one near Aundha in Maharashtra, and one near Almora in Uttarakhand. The Dwarka site is the most widely accepted and the one most pilgrims visit; the tradition genuinely differs here, as it does for a few of the twelve.
🕉️ Dwarka Among the Char Dham
✨ The four abodes and the four acts
Dwarka is the western of the four Char Dham established by Adi Shankaracharya — with Badrinath in the north, Puri in the east and Rameswaram in the south — and the seat of the Sharada Peetha. The traditional formulation is that the Lord dines at Puri, bathes at Rameswaram, dresses at Dwarka and meditates at Badrinath. Dwarka is also one of the Sapta Puri — the verse names it as Dvaravati — and is counted among the Divya Desams. See our guides to the Char Dham and 108 Divya Desams.
🎉 Festivals of the Circuit
| Festival | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| Maha Shivaratri | Somnath, Nageshwar | Phalguna (Feb–Mar) — the great night at the first Jyotirlinga |
| Janmashtami | Dwarka, Bet Dwarka | Bhadrapada (Aug–Sep) — Krishna's birth; the largest crowd of the Dwarka year |
| Kartik Purnima | Somnath | A major fair at Prabhas; mass bathing at the Triveni Sangam |
| Somvati Amavasya | Somnath | Especially significant at a shrine of the Moon-Lord |
| Holi & Rangotsav | Dwarka | Phalguna — celebrated with particular energy at the Jagat Mandir |
| Tulsi Vivah / Dev Uthani | Dwarka | Kartik Shukla Ekadashi |
🗓️ Planning Your Yatra
🧳 A workable circuit
- Day 1: Reach Somnath (nearest railhead Veraval, ~7 km; airports at Diu ~90 km, Rajkot ~190 km, Porbandar ~130 km). Darshan, evening aarti, sound and light show.
- Day 2: Bhalka Tirth, Triveni Sangam, Gita Mandir, Somnath Museum. Drive to Porbandar (~130 km) — Sudama Mandir and Kirti Mandir — and on to Dwarka.
- Day 3: Dwarka — Gomti Ghat bath, Jagat Mandir darshan, Rukmini Temple, evening aarti.
- Day 4: Nageshwar, then Bet Dwarka via Okha and the Sudarshan Setu. Return.
Best season: October to March. Summer on this coast is severe, and the monsoon disrupts boat services. Somnath ↔ Dwarka is about 230 km, roughly 4–5 hours by road. Many pilgrims extend the circuit to Girnar and Junagadh (~90 km from Somnath) and to the Gir forest.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Somnath called the first Jyotirlinga?
The Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Stotram opens with "Saurashtre Somanatham cha" — naming Somanatha in Saurashtra before any of the other eleven. The Shiva Purana's account places the manifestation here at the start of the sequence, and the temple describes itself as the Prathama Jyotirlinga. Every recitation of the stotram anywhere in India names this shrine first.
What is the connection between Somnath and the lunar fortnights?
Daksha gave his 27 daughters — the nakshatras — to Chandra on condition he treat them equally, but Chandra loved only Rohini. Daksha cursed him with kshaya, wasting away. Chandra did penance to Shiva at Prabhas with the Mahamrityunjaya mantra. Shiva could not undo Daksha's curse entirely, so he modified it: the moon would wane fifteen days and wax fifteen days, forever. That is the origin of Krishna Paksha and Shukla Paksha — the fortnights the whole Hindu calendar runs on. Chandra asked Shiva to stay, and he remained as Somnath.
Where did Krishna leave his body?
At Prabhas, near present-day Somnath — the Bhagavata Purana (Canto 11) and the Mahabharata's Mausala Parva. After the Yadavas destroyed themselves at Prabhas, Krishna lay beneath a pipal tree with one foot on his knee. A hunter named Jara, seeing the reddish sole through the leaves and taking it for a deer, loosed an arrow. Krishna consoled him and departed. Bhalka Tirth (~5 km from Somnath) marks the spot; Dehotsarg Tirth at the Triveni Sangam marks the traditional cremation site.
Why does the Dwarkadhish temple flag get changed five times a day?
The dhwaja on the Jagat Mandir's shikhara is a large cloth bearing the sun and moon, changed five times every day. Devotees offer the flag in fulfilment of a vow, and there is a long waiting list. The right to hoist it belongs by long tradition to the Abhoti brahmin family, who climb the shikhara to change it. Pilgrims enter by the Swarga Dwar and exit by the Moksha Dwar.
What is the difference between Dwarka and Bet Dwarka?
Dwarka is the capital Krishna built and ruled as Dwarkadhish, holding the Jagat Mandir — traditionally built by his great-grandson Vajranabha over Krishna's own palace. Bet Dwarka is an island ~30 km north, reached from Okha, held to be Krishna's actual residence as distinct from the capital where he ruled. It is above all the site of the Sudama episode. It is now reached by the Sudarshan Setu bridge, though boats still run.
🙏 Conclusion
The Saurashtra coast holds the two ends of a single idea. At Somnath, Shiva took a curse that could not be revoked and turned it into a rhythm — the moon dying and returning every month, which is how Hindus have measured sacred time ever since. A few kilometres away, at Bhalka, Krishna received an arrow he could have avoided and chose not to, and left. Two hundred and thirty kilometres up the coast stands the city he built on land the sea lent him and later took back. Nothing on this coast was arranged to be permanent either — and it has been continuously worshipped for longer than almost anywhere else in India.