Mul Dwarka (Mool Dwarka) Krishna Temple, Kodinar

Mul Dwarka - spelled Mool Dwarka on many signboards - is a small seashore village in Kodinar taluka of Gujarat's Gir Somnath district, sitting on the Arabian Sea about five kilometres south-west of Kodinar town.

• The name means the "root" or original Dwarka, and devotional tradition holds that Krishna and Balarama stayed here for a time on the journey west from Mathura, long before the island city of Dwarka was founded on the far Saurashtra coast.
• For pilgrims following the Pancha Dwarka circuit, the yatra begins here.
• Archaeological writing on the coast notes that this is one of three places in Gujarat claiming to be the original Dwarka of the Mahabharata, so treat the story as living tradition rather than settled history - that contested, unhurried quality is much of the appeal.
• The shrine stands on a raised patch of land close to the sea and is dated to after the tenth century AD.
• Expect a weathered, dilapidated structure rather than a polished marble complex; its sanctum holds idols of Radha-Krishna, Rama-Sita and Lakshmi-Narayan alongside smaller shrines to attendant deities.
• The marine-archaeology survey that documented the site recorded the temple as dilapidated and not under regular worship, and travel sources agree there are no fixed timings - you simply visit when you arrive, so do not plan a trip around an aarti or a darshan window.
• A state-government renovation of the complex has been announced, so conditions may have moved on by the time you get there.
• A short walk away is a deep old well, still drawn on for drinking water near the jetty, which local tradition identifies as the spot where Krishna bathed.
• The wider Kodinar area adds a scatter of other Hindu shrines - Kusheshwara (Siddheshwar) Mahadev, Bheedbhanjan Mahadev and Khodiyar Mataji among them - if you want to stretch the stop into a longer temple round.
• Mul Dwarka's second story is archaeological, and its most striking survivor is easy to walk past.
• Close to the temple stands a circular, upward-tapering tower about four metres high, built of the same well-dressed limestone blocks as the shrine; locally it is called Diva Dandi, Gujarati for lighthouse.
• Survey work suggests it may be the oldest surviving lighthouse remains on the Saurashtra coast, provisionally placed somewhere between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries AD - a hedge worth keeping, since that dating rests on construction style rather than excavation.
• The same surveys recovered a composite stone anchor from the intertidal zone and recorded reports of grapnel-type anchors, evidence of an active seaport through the medieval period and earlier; neighbouring Kanjotar and Kaj have yielded Harappan and late-Harappan material, placing this stretch of coast on very old trade routes.
• Much of the rest of the ancient port is gone.
• Its remains were largely destroyed by the building of a cement jetty, and the anchors local fishermen once knew are now buried under the new port and private buildings.
• A working captive port sits beside the village - mechanised jetties that import coal and ship out cement - and a tidal river along the western side of the village is now blocked by a sand bar thought to have formed after the jetty was built.
• Set your expectations accordingly: this is a lived-in industrial coastline rather than a resort beach, a place to sit and look rather than to swim.
• Come in the cooler months and aim for early morning or late afternoon, when the light is soft on the old stone.
• Remove footwear at the shrine and dress modestly, as at any sacred site.
• There is almost no visitor infrastructure here - no ticket counter, no real signage, no dependable shops - so carry your own drinking water and packed snacks, because nothing beyond prasad is available on site.
• Plan proper meals in Kodinar town, whose bazaar and bus-stand lanes hold simple Gujarati and Kathiyawadi thali houses and bhojanalayas serving unlimited rotli, shaak, dal, kadhi, rice and chaas, plus farsan counters frying fafda, gathiya and bhajiya and steaming dhokla through the day.
• Ask whether the kitchen is fully vegetarian before you order, because this is a coastal district and not every kitchen is; Jain travellers can ask whether a thali can be made without onion, garlic or root vegetables, and should confirm that before ordering too.
• Somnath, about 34 km west, offers a far wider choice if you are continuing that evening.
• Gujarat is a dry state, so no alcohol is served anywhere in the district, and most travellers fold the village into a Somnath day or a run towards Gir.