Dwarka

Dwarka, on the Okhamandal peninsula at the westernmost tip of Gujarat, is simultaneously one of the Sapta Puri (seven moksha-granting cities), one of the four original Dhams of Adi Shankaracharya, and the legendary capital of Krishna's kingdom after he left Mathura. The Dwarkadhish temple — a five-storey structure of Chalukya architecture with a 78-metre spire — dominates the city's skyline, with a massive flag (the Dwajadanda) changed five times daily by devotees who climb the spire.

The legendary city of Dwarka is the subject of ongoing underwater archaeology in the Gulf of Kutch, where structures have been located at depths of 30–40 metres — lending physical texture to the tradition that Krishna's city was deliberately submerged after his departure from the world. Adi Shankaracharya established the Sharda Peetham at Dwarka — the western of his four cardinal mutts, covering the western quarter of the subcontinent. The Dwarka circuit combines the Dwarkadhish temple with Beyt Dwarka island (8 km by ferry from Okha), where the temple is believed to mark Krishna's residential palace, and Nageshwar Jyotirlinga (22 km on the Okha road).

After establishing himself at Mathura, Krishna built a new kingdom at Dwarka — the divine architect Vishwakarma constructed it in a single night with gold and precious stones. It was a city without poverty, disease, or suffering during Krishna's reign, described in the Mahabharata as resting on the sea, its towers and ramparts of gold gleaming from a distance. When Krishna departed the mortal world — struck by an arrow from the hunter Jara at Bhalka Tirtha near Somnath — the city submerged beneath the ocean by divine arrangement, as Vishnu had decreed.