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| Load Krishna At Bhalaka Tirth |
History of Bhalka Tirth
The spot where Lord Krishna was mistaken for a deer and struck by a arrow hile sleeping in a deerskin. It is said Lord Krishna was cremated at Dehotsarga at Triveni Ghat.
Closeby lies Somnath with its shrine built by Soma, the Moon God. The Majestic monument as it stands today is a recent replication of the earlier construction. It is said that the original temple built by the Moon God was of gold. After it was razed to the ground it was rebuilt by Ravana in silver. When the silver temple was knocked down it was reconstructed in wood by Krishna and when this was pulled down an edifice of stone was erected by Bhimdev. Relics of the old Somnath shrine have been preserved in a museum housed in a temple. An interesting Sun Temple is alsolocated in Somnath. Somnath is also one of the 12 Jyotirlingas or Shiva shrines in India.
North of Somnath, en route to Veraval, is the famous Lord Krishna temple, Bhalka Tirtha, on the site where Krishna is said to have been mistakenly shot in the foot. Nearby is Dehotsarg, where he succumbed to his mortal wound. The temple at Bhalka Tirth is known as Mahaprabhuji's Bethak, and a tulsi tree has been planted in Lord Krishna's memory. At the Dehotsarg Tirth, in the 9th century AD Shri Vallabhacharya gave discourses on Shrimad Bhagvat Gita for seven days, as well as the revered Gita Mandir, which has eighteen marble pillars with a chapter from the Bhagvat Gita inscribed on each one. The temple also contains a beautiful tribhangi idol of Lord Krishna playing his flute.
How to get here:-
By road: Somnath is 79 km from Junagadh and 25 km from Chorwad. State transport buses and private luxury coaches connect various centres of Gujarat to Somnath.
By rail: Somnath is located 6 km from the nearest railway station at Veraval.