Dwarakadhish Temple
— — a flag changed five times before nightfall.
Not only on a wall.
“One of the Char Dham, the four corners pilgrims walk in a lifetime. The temple rises five stories above the old town of Dwarka, limestone the colour of weak tea, a conical spire above the rooftops. The flag at the top is replaced five times a day. Pilgrims climb the fifty-six steps from the Gomti ghat and don't say much on the way up. — from the studio
Dwarakadhish Temple, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Dwarakadhish Temple stands at the western edge of Gujarat, in the old port town of Dwarka where the Gomti river opens into the Arabian Sea. The shrine is dedicated to Krishna in his form as the king of Dwarka. The present limestone structure dates largely to the sixteenth century, though tradition holds the site as far older. The five-storey sanctum is supported by seventy-two carved pillars, and the conical spire rises roughly seventy-eight metres above the town. It is one of the Char Dham, the four pilgrimage anchors of Hindu India.
The temple is built of soft limestone quarried from the Saurashtra peninsula, weathered now to a pale ochre that takes the late sun warmly. Seventy-two pillars carry the inner sanctum, each cut and joined without mortar in places. The spire above the gabhara is crowned by a fabric flag, the Dhwaja, fifty-two yards long, replaced five times each day by a hereditary family of climbers known as the Abhoti. The flag carries the sun and moon, the emblems Krishna is said to have flown over the original city.
Two gates serve the temple. Pilgrims enter by Swarga Dwar, the heavens gate, climbing fifty-six steps from the Gomti ghat below; they leave by Moksha Dwar, the liberation gate. Morning aarti begins before sunrise and the temple closes briefly in the heat of the afternoon. Non-Hindus are welcomed into the outer courts; the inner sanctum is reserved for Hindu worshippers. Photography inside is not permitted. The town is reached by train from Ahmedabad, or by the small airport at Jamnagar, about a hundred and forty kilometres east.