India Travel - Ancient Temple of Stambheshwar Mahadev in the State of Gujarat in India

We were lucky to cover many fantastic sightseeing places near the city of Vadodara in Gujarat State in India during our last visit to India during last winter. One of such places was the holy temple of Stambheshwar Mahadev, which is situated at the distance of around 40 miles from the city of Vadodara in the small town of Kavi Kamboi. This Lord Shiva temple was found before around 150 years. The specialty of this ancient temple is its location in the middle of the Arabian Sea in bay of Cambay. This Lingam of Lord Shiva can only be viewed during the low tide hours and gets disappeared inside the sea during high tide hours. This means that you will have to plan your visit in such a way that you can view the full Lord Shiva Lingam during low tide and then, subsequently watch it disappearing in the sea as the tide slowly increases, depending upon the time of high and low tide.

We started from our home in the city of Vadodara by around 8 am in the morning in a hired car. Such hired cars can be easily available at the rates of around Rs.2000 ($40) for the full day for the maximum travel of 180 miles per day. Such car can easily accommodate eight persons and thus is an ideal option for taking such short trips in India with family. we reached the temple at around 10 am in the morning and went straight to the temple. As this was low tide hour, the Lord Shiva Lingam could be viewed completely. You need to walk around half a kilometer to reach to the temple from the parking lot. We were amazed to see the large and impressive Lingam of Lord Shiva in its full glory. This Lingam is around 4 feet high and 2 feet in diameter. The view of the bay of Cambay in the Arabian Sea from the back of this ancient temple is simply beautiful and breathtaking. We sat there for around an hour and enjoyed the beauty of the temple and the surroundings.

There is another temple of Lord Shiva and a small Ashram just opposite to this main temple at the height of around 500 feet from the sea level. There are all types of facilities available like decent rooms, small kitchen that serves traditional Gujarat lunch, free of cost on all days throughout the year. Though, this lunch is very simple, consisting of Dal, Rice and the Vegetable, it has the sweetness of nature and holy atmosphere of the temple. The atmosphere around the temple is very quiet and spiritual and if you are interested in dhyan and Yoga, this place is the ideal one. If you can mange to stay for one night here, you will be able to see the Lord Shiva Lingam in its full glory during the quietness of night. However, we could not stay for the night. We took the lunch here and relaxed for a while till the high tide hours began. We reached near the main temple and watched the Lord Shiva Lingam disappearing in the water slowly as the tide increased slowly. The complete Lingam disappeared in the water within next one hour due to high tide and the entire temple got submerged in the water and we were wondering weather there was really a temple there. We had our evening tea at the temple from one of the simple restaurants and started our return journey at around 5 pm and reached our home in the city of Vadodara by around 7 pm in the evening.

We still remember this lovely outing of one day that gave us new energy and charged us with spiritual energy that helped us to fight the stresses of the life for a long time thereafter. I would strongly suggest to all my AC friends and readers to visit this holy temple at least once during their next visit to Gujarat State in India. If any of my readers have any questions or doubts, all are free to contact me.

Sources- The information collected from the local guide and the priest of the temple