Dwaraka

Sacred city (tirtha) on the western coast
of Gujarat, on the shore of the Arabian
Sea. In mythic terms, Dwaraka is most
famous as the capital city for the god
Krishna’s kingdom, at which he is
believed to have lived in the years following the Mahabharata war. Dwaraka’s
most important site is the Dwarakanath
Temple, dedicated to Krishna in his
form as the “Lord of Dwaraka.” Dwaraka
is also one of the four dhams (“divine
abodes”), sacred centers that approximately define the geographic boundaries of India; the three others are
Badrinath, Puri, and Rameshvaram.
Dwaraka is also the site of the Sharada
math, one of the four Dashanami
Sanyasi maths (monastic centers) supposedly established by the philosopher
Shankaracharya. The Sharada math is
the headquarters of the Kitawara group
of the Dashanami Sanyasis, one of the
four major organizational groups, with
each one centered at one of the maths.
As with many other Hindu sacred sites,
Dwaraka is sanctified by a network of
mythic and religious associations.