The Guru Gorakhnath Temple at Dhinodhar Hill Near Bhuj in Gujarat State of India

India is a country that is full of hills and mountains. Though, some of these mountains may not be as famous as others, but are considered very holy and vital in Hindu religion. One such mountain is Dhinodhar that is located in Kutch district of Gujarat State. This hill of Dhinodhar is located in Nakhatrana taluka near to main city Bhuj. It is around 1300 feet high. This hill is very famous for the temple of Guru Gorakhnath that is located at the top of this hill.

This hill is located at around 7 miles from the town of Nakhatrana. This temple belongs to Nath sampraday, which is a very firm follower of great guru Gorakhnath. All the saints of this sampraday wear very large ear rings in their ears made of stone and as a result, their ears are torn from the end. This sampraday was established in the year 644. The highest importance is given to simple living and helping others in this sampraday. The leader of this sampraday is called pir, which means a very holy and sacred person. The donation of food is the most important feature of such saints. The village named Than is located at the base of this hill. Dhinodhar hill is the place of pilgrimage for the Hindus having faith in guru Gorakhnath. The big fair is held here every year in the month of October on the birthday of great guru Gorakhnath. Thousands of visitors visit this place at that time and this small place gets full of people.

The temple is very ancient and is around 1200 years old. It is not exactly known as to who constructed this ancient temple. The original temple got heavily damaged during the earthquake in the year 1819. The temple was subsequently renovated in the year 1821 by Sunderjee Khatri who was a rich merchant staying at Bhuj. There is a statue of guru Gorakhnath in the temple, which is around 3 feet high and made of special type of black marble. There is a small dip that is kept always lighted since last so many years. It is said that this dip is on since the day, temple was constructed. There is also a holy fire place in the temple, which was used by guru Gorakhnath himself for performing puja. The people strongly believe that all their wishes shall get fulfilled if they visit and perform puja here at the temple. The temple still looks extremely good in spite of so many years. Luckily, there was no major damage to the temple during the most recent and intense earthquake on 26^th January, 2001 in Gujarat State.

This hill is easily reachable from Bhuj, which is the district headquarter and have all sorts of facilities. Bhuj is well connected by air, train, and the bus service from all the major cities of Gujarat State like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, etc. Bhuj is around 300 miles away from Ahmedabad. The train leaves Ahmedabad at around 8 pm and reaches Bhuj at around 7 am on next day morning. You can travel by hired car or taxi up to the base of the hill. The road going to the top of the hill is rather rough and needs full physical fitness to climb it up to top. The entire area around this hill is slightly underdeveloped and there are very few facilities of hotels, restaurants etc near this hill. It is a one day outing from Bhuj. You may start at around 8 am in the morning from Bhuj and reach here by around 10 am.

The visit of the hill can be completed in around 4 hours and you can reach back to Bhuj by around 2 pm in the afternoon. Make sure to carry your own supply of bottled mineral water and some light snacks like sandwiches with you as there are no restaurants available here. However, all the pilgrims are provided free lunch and snack from the temple management but its quality may not be very good. There is a small dharmshala also available in case some pilgrims like to stay here overnight. Small rooms with bare minimum facilities are provided here at a very nominal rate of around Rs. 25 (60 cents) per day.

The Gujarat government is now taking some steps to develop this place as a tourist place. As the nature has given beauty of its own to this place, it shall surely get developed as a tourist place in a near future. However, if you happen to visit Bhuj during your visit to India, I would strongly recommend paying a visit here, which will only consume your half a day.