- Dvaraka
- Dvaraka is one of the seven sacred cities of India; for Vaishnavites (see VAISHNAVISM) it is also one of the four places renowned for the special presence of god (the other three are BADRINATH, RAMESH-VA R A M, and Puri). KRISHNA is said to have fled here to escape from the evil Mathura king Kamsa, who had tried so often to kill him, and the city is con-sidered the capital of Krishna’s kingdom.Dvaraka is on the sea in Saurashtra, a region of Gujarat. Krishna’s birthday, the HOLI festival, and DIVALI are three special festival days at Dvaraka. There is a huge temple complex devoted to Krishna. The city is also the site of one of the four monastic centers established by the great sage SHANKARA in the eighth century.Further reading: E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythol-ogy (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986): S. R. Rao, The Lost City of Dvaraka (New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1999).
Encyclopedia of Hinduism. A. Jones and James D. Ryan. 2007.