Yatra to Pancha Dwarakas- An Introduction

Introduction

Very few of us have the time & inclination to indulge in Religious & Spiritual Exercises in the prime of our youth. This is primarily due to the fact that we are busy in our work and also in bringing up our children. It is only after we retire and our children are well established in life that we think in terms of religious & spiritual pursuits seriously.
I am not spiritual or religious by any stretch of imagination and my travels after retirement was primarily intended to take me to places, which I had not seen during my career in the Armed Forces. Moreover, I was curious to see the length & breadth of India having read books on Indian Civilization & Culture written by eminent people like Jawaharlal Nehru and A L Basham. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has also published excellent books on the same subject when K M Munshi was heading it.
I was also curious to see in person the architectural wonders created by our ancient rulers like the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, Rashtrakutas, Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas etc. I developed an interest on this issue as a result of teaching World History to Pre-University students soon after my graduation.
I shall, in these columns, will be writing a series of articles, which will be more in the nature of an exercise to motivate other like-minded people to undertake similar excursions. Hence, I am open to criticism and suggestions if the articles do not come up to your expectation.
One such tour/excursion took me to Gujarat & Rajasthan. My wife & me went on a Pancha Dwaraka tour with Sri Mahalakshmi Yathra Service from Jan 30, 2005 to 15 Feb 2005. A word about the tour operators will be necessary at this juncture. This was their 331st tour. They are in this line since last 31 years and have had only one accident. They have their own staff consisting of cooks and administrators who accompany us from Chennai. Their rates are reasonable, accommodation enroute is comfortable and the food cooked is palatable.
We started on 30 Jan 2005 by Navajeevan Express leaving Chennai at 0930 hrs. We returned to Chennai on the 15th of Feb 2005 by Jaipur Express, which left Jaipur on 13 Feb 2005 evening. There were in all 68 Yathriks.
Dwaraka is the place where Lord Krishna established his own Kingdom faraway from Mathura, his birthplace. People have discounted the existence of Lord Krishna. Dwaraka and the occurrence of the Mahabharata war stating that these are a poet’s imagination. These persons may not agree that the Bhagavat Gita was the handiwork of the Lord himself. They cannot, however, help appreciating it since it has fetched Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel Prize in literature. Dwaraka is said to have been submerged in the sea soon after the passing away of Lord Krishna. The non-existence of Dwaraka added strength to the arguments of the non-believers. Dr S.R.Rao and his team of Marine Archeologists undertook a search of the seabed from 1984 to 1988 along the coast of Gujarat where the present Dwarakideesh temple stands and stumbled upon evidences that proved the existence of the city of Dwaraka. They succeeded in unearthing the submerged ruins of the city of Dwaraka.

-Continued in the next issue-