History
There is a beautiful ancient temple of Lord Vishnu-Lord Shyam here. The story goes like in the Puranas these are refened to as 'Taptodak' .Legend says that Lord Krishna eliminated the demon called Tul and so the place is associated with his name along with that of Krishna as Shyam and is thus called Tulsishyam. A story from the Puranas says that a demon called Jalandhar had great strength. His wife Vrinda was a very pious lady. No one in the three Loks could defeat Jalandhar and so even the gods were now tired of him. They appealed to Lord Vishnu for this, and the Lord assumed the fonn of the demon and went to his wife Vrinda and thus her 'pativrata' status came to an end. As the demon returned the trick was revealed to her and she cursed the Lord to turn into a stone. But she regretted her anger and so sat on a funeral pyre and burned herself to death. Lord Vishnu also regretted that he had resorted to such a trick on her to punish her husband. At the site of the pyre a plant of Tulsi had come up, and Lord Visnhu now began to shower His love over it. He promised that.he will marry her in her next birth. Then Vrinda was born as Rukmini and she married Lord Krishna who was the Avatar of Lord Vishnu. This is why it is said that the Tulsi plant is very dear to Lord Vishnu and it acquired another name, Vishnupriya. On the 11th day of bright half of Kartik month, Tulsi man'ies Lord Shaligram, and on this day the 'Annakuta' is distributed. This place also has a temple of Kunti. The idol of Lord Tulsishyam is very beautiful in temple and is said to be 3000 years old. It is made up of black stone and if you observe the statue very closely for about 2 minutes, you will notice a faint smile on the face of the statue. The morning arthi time is 4.45am, evening arthi at 7.30pm, and the last shayan arthi at 8.30pm. Make sure to attend these arthis in the temple. Try to take long walks in the early morning hours to enjoy the beauty of this jungle. We were able to see many peacocks in the jungle dancing in the most natural habitat during our morning walk.
There are sulphur hot water falls here just near the temple.People believe that the bath in these falls can cure all types of skin diseases and provide fresh energy in minutes. There is a separate provision for taking bath for the men and women. There are three Kunds for men, out of which one is having extremely hot water. The bath is not allowed in this Kund. The other two Kunds are for men and there is one Kund for women. All the pilgrims who come here are offered free lunch and dinner with the hot tea in the morning and the evening. The timings are 11.30 am to 2 pm for lunch and 7.30 pm to 9 pm for dinner. The simple Gujarati food is served here and is really worth enjoying. Tourists can stay here overnight and can get facility of accommodation with resonable charges but there are some restriction like not to leave Temple campus between 9:00pm to 6:00pm. It is because of Gir Forest sanctury's rules and regulations
Tulsishyam is situated 32 miles away from Junagadh and 210 miles away from Ahmedabad, the biggest city of Gujarat State. You can reach Tulsishyam directly by road in a hired car or the State Transport buses. The second choice is to reach Junagadh by train from Ahmedabad and take taxi from Junagadh for Tulsishyam. The place is not yet developed fully and if you are looking for 3 star to 5 star hotel amenities here, this is not a place for you. The State Government guesthouse has 35 rooms in all. There are some rooms with the attached toilet; however, most of the rooms are on the shared toilet basis. The rent of rooms is in the range of Rs.50 ($1.25) per day for a double room. The rooms do have two beds and a chair to sit.
