Dhwaja (Flag) Change Ceremony

High above the town of Dwarka, where the Gomti creek slips into the Arabian Sea, the shikhara of the Dwarkadhish Temple — the Jagat Mandir — carries an enormous cloth flag that snaps and billows in the coastal wind.

• Several times each day this dhwaja is lowered and a fresh one raised in its place, a ceremony so distinctive that many pilgrims deliberately time their darshan around it.
• By tradition the temple marks the earthly seat of Lord Krishna as Dwarkadhish, the "king of Dwarka", and the flag is understood as a signal that the deity presides over the city.
• It is believed the banner will fly here for as long as the sun and moon endure, and the two are emblazoned upon the cloth as a promise of that permanence.
• The task of changing the flag belongs to the Abhoti Brahmins, families who by long custom climb the sheer, towering spire — said to rise more than forty metres — without modern rigging, carrying the folded banner to the pinnacle and unfurling it to ringing cries of "Jai Dwarkadhish".
• The flags themselves are donated by devotees, and the honour of sponsoring one is so coveted that families reserve their turn years in advance; a newly sponsored dhwaja is first carried through the streets in a small procession before being borne up the tower.
• Watching the tiny figures work at such a giddy height, the vast fabric filling with sea wind against an open sky, is among the most moving spectacles in the pilgrim town, and the crowds below fall quiet, then erupt, as each flag catches the breeze.
• The ceremony recurs roughly five times between the temple's early-morning opening and its late-evening close, so a patient visitor rarely misses it.
• Arrive a little ahead, find a clear line of sight to the spire from the courtyard or the Gomti ghat steps, and simply wait; the change takes only minutes but the anticipation is part of the experience.
• Photography of the flag against the sky is permitted from outside, though phones and cameras are usually surrendered before entering the inner sanctum.
• Dwarka is a pilgrim town, and its lanes are overwhelmingly pure-vegetarian.
• Around the temple you will find simple pure-veg Gujarati and Kathiyawadi thali houses ladling out unlimited rotli, seasonal shaak, dal, kadhi, rice and a sweet, alongside morning farsan stalls selling fafda, dhokla, khaman and hot jalebi.
• The Jagat Mandir precinct also has a prasad counter and community bhojanalaya where a modest sattvic meal is offered to pilgrims.
• For a quick bite, vegetarian South Indian and Punjabi eateries near the main market round out the options — all strictly meat-free and, this being the dry state of Gujarat, entirely alcohol-free.