Tag Archives: temple

Sunset at the Temple

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Located in Vadodara district of Gujarat, Kayavarohan Shiv temple is one of the sixty-eight ‘teerthas’ (Pilgrimage) of Lord Shiva as mentioned in the Shiva Purana. According to the legends, Lord Shiva took the incarnation of Lakulish in this temple. Lord Shiva took the form of a brahmin child so the place is known as Kayavarohan. Kayavarohan lingam represents the formlessness and uniqueness of Lord Shiva. 

Visitors enjoying peace and serenity at the temple around sunset.

Sunset at the Temple

Somnath Temple Spire

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The Somnath temple was reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by multiple Muslim invaders and rulers over India.

The present temple is a Māru-Gurjara architecture (also called Chaulukya or Solanki style) temple. It has a “Kailash Mahameru Prasad” form. The architect of the new Somnath temple was Prabhashankarbhai Oghadbhai Sompura, who worked on recovering and integrating the old recoverable parts with the new design in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The new Somnath temple is intricately carved, two level temple with pillared mandapa and 212 relief panels.

The temple’s śikhara, or main spire, is 15 metres (49 ft) in height above the sanctum, and it has an 8.2-metre-tall flag pole at the top.

Somnath Temple Dome

Shree Somnath Jyotirlinga Temple

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The intricately carved honey-colored (further accentuated at sunset) Somnath temple on the western edge of Gujarat is believed to be the place where the first of the twelve holy jyotirlingas emerged in India – a spot where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light. The temples lies at the meeting of Kapila, Hiran and Sarasvati rivers and the waves of the Arabian Sea ebb and flow touching the shore on which it is constructed. The ancient temple’s timeline can be traced from 649 BC but is believed to be older than that. The present form was reconstructed in 1951. 

The setting sun transforms the temple sign, in Hindi script, painted with Indian flag colors by casting a golden glow.

Somnath Temple Gujarat
Golden Glow on Somnath Sign

Somnath Temple, Gujarat

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The Somnath temple is a Hindu temple located in Gujarat, India. It is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for Hindus and is believed to be first among the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. We visited the temple at sunset and the golden glow of the sun’s rays is evidenced in all images.

Photography is not allowed on the temple site so we had to access a walkway along the ocean to capture the images.

Somnath Temple at Sunset

Iglesia de la Merced San Jose

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The Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Merced is also known by the locals as just “Iglesia de la Merced.” The building is a Catholic temple dedicated to the Virgen de las Mercedes and has a neo-Gothic architecture. It stands out as the main tower has a German Gothic style, with a wonderful view to Braulio Carrillo Park (La Merced Park), where it is located.

Iglesia Nuestra San Jose

Old Temples in Kayavarohan

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Walking through Kayavarohan, one can find many old temples with Shiva lingam. A lingam, sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism.

The famous Kayavarohan lingam (housed at the famous Shiva Temple) represents the “formless” but a unique, exceptional iconic form of Shiva bearing the image of a meditating yogi, who holds parchments in one hand and citron (Matulinga) in the other. The image on the right has a smaller replica of the form at the location where the original lingam was first housed. The image on the middle bottom shows a lingam that is partly below the ground and is as tall as a human.

Old Temples in Kayavarohan

Kayavarohan Shiva Temple

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Kayavarohan, Gujarat, India harbors the Brahmeshwar Jyotirshivlang temple, claimed to have been founded by Maharshi Vishwamitra. It has been held that the incarnation of Shiva in Lakulish has merged with the linga. Here are images of the popularly visited temple lighted up for Diwali.

Flowers at the Temple
Color at Maheshwar Temple Kayavarohan
Colors at Maheshwar Temple
Lakulish Shiv Temple Kayavarohan

Flowers – Yellow Plumeria

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A plumeria’s deep-green, long, leathery leaves grow in dense clumps at the tips of its branches. From early summer through fall, clusters of five-petaled flowers bloom amid the leaves. Large and aromatic, flowers can be white, cream, yellow, pink, lilac, or red. In Asia, plumeria flowers adorn Buddhist and Hindu temples. Captured these in Cerritos, California.

Yellow Plumeria

Staircase to the Temple

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The stone for the BAPS Temple in Atlanta, Georgia was shipped piece by piece from India, where craftsmen had sculptured it into more than 500 designs including rosettes, leaves, feathers and lacy geometric patterns. The thousands of sections, ranging from five ounces to five tons, each with its own bar code, have been assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle based on instructions for religious buildings written into scripture thousands of years old.

Staircase to the Temple

Row of Elephants at the Temple

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The water feature at BAPS Temple in Atlanta, Georgia is decorated with a row of elephant sculptures.

In India the elephant is a symbol for power, dignity, intelligence and peace. Elephants in Hinduism and the Indian Culture are a symbol of intellectual strength, and sturdy earthy mental strength. Elephants, in general, symbolize the qualities of wisdom, strength, courage, longevity, patience, honor, and stature.

Row of Elephants at the Temple

BAPS Temple Atlanta Panorama

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Open to one and all, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, in Atlanta, Georgia) was inaugurated in August of 2007 after only 17 months of construction time utilizing 1.3 million volunteer hours. The Mandir is comprised of three types of stone (Turkish Limestone, Italian marble, and Indian pink sandstone). More than 34,000 individual pieces were carved by hand in India, shipped to the USA and assembled like a giant 3-D puzzle.

BAPS Temple Atlanta Panorama