Nava Dwaraka and Mokshapuris

Nava (9) Dwarka's:

1) Jagat Mandir- this is the main temple 7 stories high which is located in Dwarka town.

2) Gomti thirta- at this Divyadesams the sacred Gomti river meets the sea and it is round here that the Dwaraka Sila (worshiped with Salagrams are found

3) Rukmani mandir, located on the outskirts of Dwarka Town and is the main place for thayar

4) Bhet Dwaraka, is a island located some way of the coast of Dwarka town, according to tradition this is the last remaining area of the original Dwarka.

5) Sudhama Dwarka, is near by in modern day Porbandar city where Krishna's friend Vipra-Sudharma lived.

6) Moola Dwarka- where Kirshna 1st set foot

7) Mukti-Dwaraka- This thirta is located south of the dwaraka town in Prabhas Kshetra. This Kshetra is most famous as a Saiva holy place as the Somnath Linga is here. But near by to the Somanath Mahadeva temple is where Lord Krishna was shot by the Hunte Jara and the sites where Krishna and Baladeva left this Planet.

8) Dakor- this town is located in eastern Gujarat in Umreth disrict. It is beleived that once the lord waa displeased with the greedy archakas at Dwarka and decided to leave the place and followed the sincere Brahmin devotee Bodhana to his home town in Dakor. Bodhana had been makin yatra to dwarka his whole life and in his old age he made his last visist but the lord (the Dwaraka Moolavar) could not stand not seeing this Bhakta again so left dwarka. Thus the Vighraha in Dakor is probaly the Deity which The Alvars sang about in Divya Prabhandanam. The Molavar in Dwarka today was found in a located indicated by the Lord after the Dwarka Brahmins could not take the original deity back from Dakor.

9) Nathdwara- this temple town is near Udaipur in Rajasthan. This is the main seat of the Pustimarg Vaisnav sect, founded by Vallabhacharya. The Mola deity is of SriGovardhannathji (short- Shrinathji). This deity was original worshiped is Swayam Vyakatha (like Balaji) and was originaly loacted on Mt Govardhan in Vraj Bhumi. But due to the Muslims destroying our temples, Vallabhacharay bought the deity to Nathdwara. This deity is possibly the second wealthiest (after Balaji) and is very popular in the Gujarati community.

Apart from these Ksetras another holy Vaishnav Tirtha in Gujarat is Raivathik Tirtha near Junagadh town. This place is well known for the Holy Girnar hill which is very famous to Jains, lord Shiva and Lord Dattatreya. However this region has the great Damodharji Krishna temple (seehttp://www.shreeradhadamodarji.org/eng/girnar.html). krishna bless Machukunda here and Balram-Revati Kalyanam is assocaited with this place.

7 Mokshapuris:

Kanchi is the only mokshapuri in peninsular India,

Ayodha(Uttar Pradesh),

Mathura(Uttar Pradesh),

Maya or Hardwar(Uttar Pradesh),

Kasi or Varanasi(Uttar Pradesh),

Avantika or Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) and

Dwaraka (Gujarat) being situated north of the Vindhyas.