Prabhas Shakti Peeth is among the 51 Shakti Peeth of Ma Sati. It is said that, the stomach of Maa Sati fell here, when lord Vishnu in order to relieve lord Shiva from grief of losing his wife Sati, used his ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ to incise Maa Sati Body. Then, at the place of fall of stomach, this temple was constructed. Prabhas Shakti Peeth is located near Veraval, near Junagarh district of Gujarat. Ahmedabad is not very far from this place. Since this temple is situated near to the metro city of India, so the transportation to this place is quite good. Here the idol of Maa Sati is called as ‘Chandrabhaga’ and the lord Shiva is worshipped as ‘Bhakratunda’. Meaning of Chandrabhaga is throne of moon and depicts power.
Among the Hindu aficionados, this temple is quite popular and every year people in exorbitant number flock to this part of country to offer their prayers. Just adjacent to this temple, famous ‘Somnath’ temple is also situated. It is also visited by people in large numbers. Importance of Somnath temple is as much as of the Shakti Peeth.
History of Prabhas Peeth
It is said that moon was to marry one of the daughter called as Rohini of King King Daksh Prajapati. But he married all the 27 daughter of the king. In rage King told moon to get disappeared. In order to get his glow back, it is said that moon worshipped lord Shiva at Prabhas. There is no exact information available about the construction or establishment of this temple. It is a very ancient temple and the whole construction of this temple is done with the help of stones. All around the walls sculpture dedicated to gods are engraved on the stones. But people visiting this temple will surely find from local people about the existence of this temple and information related to its origin.
Festivals in Prabhas temple
Navaratri that falls two times in a year- one in the month of March or April and other in the September or October month depending on the Hindu calendar, is the major festival here. The whole ambience of temple during this festival is mesmerizing to see and people all over the country come here to celebrate this auspicious occasion. Navaratri are celebrated with full energy, faith, dedication and devotion. Navaratri are celebrated for over 9 days, with some people not eating any type of food that is derived from the soil for these nine days. Special ceremonies and rituals are carried during these days. Another festival that is celebrated with great enthusiasm is the ‘Shivaratri’. Annually there is a famous fair held near to the Somnath temple. A very famous activity or you can say dance is performed by men and women together and it is called as ‘Garbha or Dandiya’ during the holy days of Navaratri.
Where to stay
There is no end to list of hotels or accommodation spaces in Junagarh or nearby this temple. Ranging from Rs 250 per day to Rs 100000, you have all sorts of accommodation spaces in Junagarh, because it major tourist spot among the foreign tourist. Many travel services offers great deals when it comes to overall package that not only includes Prabhas Shakti as the visiting place, but also the other temple nearby. Both domestic and foreign tourist are advised not to get lured by the heavy discounts hotels promised by the Auto rickshaw and other travel service agents, because you may end in getting bad services, but have to have as per the good service.
Shopping around Prabhas temple
It totally depends on you what type of shopping you want to do. For worship related shopping, there are hack lots of shops, catering all needs of the pilgrims. But apart from this if you want a real raw shopping like clothes, jewelry etc there are couple of good shops in the city. Some international fashion chains are present and there is no end to this list. There are couple of market that are not that expensive but still sell items that are worth buying. So make sure that you find out where these markets are, before you start your journey.
Other places that can be visited nearby…
Well there are other places too like temple, museum that can be visited when coming to Prabhas temple. Prabhas Patan Museum houses some of the interesting items related to lord Shiva. On the other hand Triveni Ghat where three river- Saraswati, Kapil and Hiran. Some of the other hotspot around Prabhas temple are Geeta temple, Ahilyabai temple, Suraj temple , Mai puri masjid, Junagarh ghatand Balramjiki Gufa.
How to reach the Prabhas temple
Junagarh has some of the best connectivity in India. You name it and they have all mode of transportation playing towards this part of the country. In terms of airways, both international and national airports are located near to this city. Now talking about the railways, trains from every part of the country play towards this adorable city and same as the case with road transport. Veraval is the nearest railway station to this temple. There are several private bus services that play from different cities to part of the country and they can vary from full luxury to semi luxury types. People can go for the paid taxi service too, but the charges from them are higher as compare to the public transport system.