Historical Period56c CE
1156 CE (Bodānā's legend); current temple 1772
📷 Ashesh Shah · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · source
Deities
Raṇchoḍrāy of Dakor
Raṇchoḍrāy — Krishna who ran from battle to love
Raṇchoḍrāy — Krishna who ran from battle to love
Raṇchoḍrāy — Krishna's epithet meaning "one who ran from battle" (after retreating from Jarāsandha's 17 invasions) — is the beloved Gujarati form of Krishna. The black marble idol at Dakor is said to have been carried overnight from Dwarka by Bodānā, a low-caste devotee, in 1156 CE. The temple is a regional-pilgrimage equal in Gujarati imagination to Dwarka itself. Pūrṇimā (monthly full moon) is the big darshan — pilgrims cover 84 km on foot from Ahmedabad (Dakor Pādayātrā) in the monsoon months of Āṣāḍha-Shrāvaṇa.
Daily aarati at dawn and dusk; abhisheka with water/milk/turmeric; kumkum offering; red hibiscus; oil lamp. For Tantric or non-Brahmin shrines: goat-sacrifice (traditional; increasingly symbolic pumpkin-breaking).
Hinduism's goddess-traditions are vast and diverse — 51 Shakti Pīṭhas, 10 Mahāvidyās, 9 Navadurga, 8 Ashta Matrika, hundreds of regional forms. Each is a distinct face of the one supreme Mahā-Devī.
