Dakor

Dakor (Gujarati: ISO 15919: Ḍākōr) is a small city and a municipality in Kheda district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is prominent for its temple of Raṇchoḍrāyjī.

History and Temple
The temple of Raṇchoḍrāyjī houses a mūrtī of the Vishnu-Trivikram class. The temple rituals are under the influence of Vallabhite Vaishnavism. The name "Raṇchoḍ" refers to when Kr̥ṣṇa fled the battlefield by running away from Jarāsandha to Dvārkā.

According to the Ḍākor-māhātmya, a Rajput named Boḍāṇo aka Vijayasiṁha used to visit Dvārkādhīś at Dvārkā, but lived in Ḍākor. In 1151, when Boḍāṇā reached the age of eighty years, God told Boḍāṇā that he would join him in Ḍākor. Boḍāṇā borrowed a cart and bullocks from a local cowherd and sold his utensils to feed them, and made for Dvārakā. When he reached Dvārakā, the Gugalīs (temple priests of Dvārakā) suspected his intentions and put additional locks on the temple. However Dvārkānāth now named Raṇchoḍ himself slipped out of the temple and awoke Boḍāṇā and told him to drive away with him. When they left the city gates Raṇchoḍ himself drove the cart while Boḍāṇā slept. When the Gugalīs awoke in the morning to find Dvāraknāth missing, they chased Boḍāṇā back to Ḍākor, where he had hidden Raṇachoḍ in the Gomatī reservoir. Raṇchoḍ told Boḍāṇā to meet the Gugalīs and give them presents of curds, but the Gugalīs threw a lance at him. According to the mahātmya the lance instead landed on Raṇachoḍjī whose blood bloodied the waters of the Gomatī and revealed his location. The Gugalīs then tried to remove the image from the waters but were unsuccessful. The Gugalīs became repentant and began fasting to try remove their guilt. Boḍāṇā's wife Gaṅgā could not bear to see this sight, so when she was giving Raṇchoḍ his daily evening roṭalā, she offered to give him lāḍus if he bestowed grace on the Gugalīs and to not give him anything he did not. Raṇachoḍ told her that the Gugalīs were not missing him, but the gold and money his presence brought them. He told Gaṅgā to ask the Gugalīs if they would accept his weight in gold, and proceeded to gobble all the lāḍus. The Gugalīs agreed to this contract, but it was miracously discovered that Gaṅgā's gold nose-ring weighed more Raṇchoḍ, from when the Gugalīs left. The mūrti in Dvārkā was replaced miraculously. The Ḍaṅka Purāṇa or Ḍaṅkapura-māhātmya was written at the end of the 17th century.

In 1625, Dakor was visited by Harirāyjī, who reformed the sevā in the temple and ordered a group of Śrīgoḍ-Mevāḍā and Khedāvāl brahmins to perform Vallabhite rituals at the temple. Ever since the visit whenever a Vallabhite Maharaj is present in the temple he becomes the acting sevak of the temple. Formerly the priests were Tapodhan brahmins who used to attend to Śiva Daṁkanāth before the arrival of Ḍākorajī.

In 1732, Pilājī Gaekwāḍ was assassinated in Dakor on the orders of Abhai Singh.

According to the Ḍākor-māhātmya, a Bania named Nandana built a temple for Raṇchoḍjī now known as Lakshmiji's temple. The image of Raṇachoḍ was moved by a descendant of Boḍāṇā named Dīpasing. According to other accounts in 1734, Ratan Singh, vajir of the rāja of Mārwār Abhai Singh had Raṇchoḍjī installed in a new temple.

In 1740, Momin Khan, viceroy of Gujarat under the emperor Muhammad Shah, issued documents ordering Mutasiddidār/Thāṇdār of Ṭhāsrā to not persecute the servants of Raṇchoḍjī nor appropriate their income from devotees, as well as assuring the servants of his protection.

The current temple was built by Gopāl Tāṁbvekar, a Dakṣiṇī Brahmin from Poona, who was a devotee of Veṅkaṭeśa. Construction began in AD 1769-70 and Raṇchoḍjī was moved into the new temple by Rāmasing, descendant of Boḍāṇā in 1770-71. Tāṁbvekar also was granted Dakor by Peśvā Mādhava Rāō. According to tradition when the temple was built Raṇachoḍ told Lakṣmī that the original temple should remain inhabited by her, and that he would visit her every Ekadaśī and Friday in the form of Bāla-Kr̥ṣṇa. Accordingly on those days the icon of Gopāla Lāl is taken on elephant or carriage from the (current) Nija temple to Lakṣmījī's temple. The current Nija temple also contains images of Lakṣmī, Satyabhāmā, and Gopāla Lāl, the three of which are taken to the Sajjā temple at night.

After the region came under the control of the Gaekwads of Baroda, the rulers patronized the temple and its sevaks.

During English rule the temple's ownership of the village of Ḍākor was confirmed. In the 1860s and 1870, Vaiṣṇava Mahārājas Bhaṭṭajī and Maṭujī visited Dakor and served Raṇāchoḍarāy and patronized the temple. Much wealth was owned in the name of Raṇachoḍarāy and managed by the sevaks, including a banking firm called Gopāla Lālajī and cows. The sevaks in that era played a keen interest in the maintenance of prosperity of the temple through gifts, as well as maintaining orthodox beliefs, such as when a police commissioner named Hykoop was assaulted for trying to enter the temple which would have been considered ritual defilement.



Demographics
India census, Dakor had a population of 23,784. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Dakor has an average literacy rate of 76%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 82% and, female literacy is 69%. In Dakor, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.