Shri Krishna and Gujarat

From Dwarka to Dakor, from Narsinh Mehta to the Pushtimarg havelis, the land and life of Gujarat are woven with love for Bhagavan Shri Krishna.

Few regions of India are as intimately bound to Bhagavan Shri Krishna as Gujarat. According to the Shrimad Bhagavatam and the Mahabharata, when the repeated attacks of Jarasandha made Mathura unsafe, Krishna led the Yadavas to the shore of the western sea and founded Dwarka, which became his royal capital. So for Gujaratis Krishna is not only the cowherd boy of Braj but above all Dwarkadhish, the King of Dwarka, and Ranchhodrai, the Lord who, in the popular explanation of the name, left the battlefield (ran) to protect his people. Ranchhod is still a much-loved Gujarati name.

The coast of Saurashtra is strung with tirthas linked to his life like beads on a garland: Dwarka and the island of Bet Dwarka; Madhavpur, where by popular tradition he married Rukmini; Porbandar, remembered as the town of his friend Sudama; and Prabhas near Somnath, where Krishna is believed to have concluded his earthly leela at Bhalka Tirth. Inland, Dakor is the home of Ranchhodrai, and Shamlaji in the Aravalli hills is another ancient centre of Vishnu-Krishna worship.

Gujarat's devotion has also been shaped by saints and poets. Narsinh Mehta of Junagadh, the Adi Kavi or first poet of Gujarati, filled the dawn with his prabhatiyan, and Mirabai, according to tradition, spent her last years at Dwarka. From the sixteenth century the Pushtimarg of Shri Vallabhacharya and his son Gusainji spread among Gujarati Vaishnav families, whose havelis keep up a loving daily seva of the child Krishna.

Festivals carry this love into every home and street: Janmashtami with the Satam-Atham holidays and fairs, the hindola (swing) darshans of Shravan, the Rath Yatra of Ahmedabad, and the raas and garba, whose circling dances recall Krishna's raas with the gopis.

District

Gujarat (statewide)