Visit to Holy Damodar Kund in Gujarat State of India

India is the country full of religious people and places of pilgrimage in all its remote corners. However, there are some places of pilgrimage that are really unique in one or other way. Damodar Kund, which is situated near the city of Junagadh in Gujarat State, is one such place of pilgrimage. The pilgrims visiting it get the credit of visiting sixty eight tirthdhams of India, just by visiting only this Damodar Kund, situated at the base of great Mountain Girnar near the city of Junagadh.

Junagadh can easily be reached by train or bus from any major cities of the Gujarat State. There are daily night trains available from Ahmedabad for Junagadh, leaving at around 9 pm and reaching Junagadh at around 7 am in the morning. The famous Damodar Kund is situated at the distance of around three miles from the town center of Junagadh. Most of the pilgrims cover this distance by walking. However, auto rickshaws and horse carts are available from the town center for Damodar Kund. There are three kunds here, which are built by the concrete. The names of these kunds are Damodar Kund, Revati Kund, and the sati Parvati Kund. These water storage kunds are quiet large and have separate bathing ghats for the men and women. Lord Brahma had performed tap here after putting the water from almost all the holy Rivers of India like Ganga, Yamuna, Kaveri, Sindhu, Kshipra, Narmada, and Godavari in to this Kund. That is why visit to this place is considered equivalent to visiting sixty eight holy places of India. Lord Brahma performed holy yajna here at this kund. Once the holy yajna was completed, Lord Brahma told all the Rivers to go back to their respective origins but all the holy Rivers decided to stay at these kunds only as a goodwill gesture to Lord Brahma. The pilgrims take a holy deep here at these three kunds and earn lot of religious credit in their life account. It is also said that Revati, wife of Balramaji, the elder brother of Lord Krishna, visited this holy place and carried out the renovation work of these kunds on the request of Maharishi Garg. This confirms that these kunds are extremely ancient and were perhaps built even before Mahabharata time. Once the pilgrims take holy bath here in the kunds, they climb up steps and enter the ancient temple of Lord Shiva. There is also a holy sit of Guru Vallabhaacharya here at these kunds. The pilgrims also visit this holy sit and perform darshnas. Though, the water of these kunds is very dirty, it does not reduce the faith of the pilgrims in taking holy deep inside these kunds.

The importance of Damodar Kund increases tremendously during the maha Shivratri days as the most famous Bhavnath fair is held at this place every year. Taking first holy bath in to these kunds on Shivratri day is considered extremely auspicious and prestigious. This right has been given to Naga Bava community as recognition of the sacrifice given by them during the wars against Moguls in Fifteenth century. Millions of people are visiting this holy place from all over the world during this fair. It becomes extremely difficult to get suitable accommodation in the city of Junagadh during these days. As otherwise, there are many good hotels available at Junagadh for the tourists. The authentic Kathiawadi food is the specialty here at Junagadh. There are many other vital site seeing spots here at Junagadh. The stay of around two to three days can be sufficient to cover visit to all such places.

I sincerely recommend all my friends and readers to visit this holy place of Damodar Kund during their next visit to India to earn large religious credit in their life account.