Mathura A District Memoir Chapter-4

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Mathura A District Memoir By F.S.Growse Chapter-1 Chapter-2 Chapter-3 Chapter-4 Chapter-5 Chapter-6 Chapter-7 Chapter-8 Chapter-9 Chapter-10 Chapter-11 Chapter-12 Chapter-13

THE BRAJ-MANDAL, THE BAN-JATRA, AND THE HOLI.

NOT only the city of Mathura, but with it the whole of the western half of the district, has a special interest of its own as the birth-place and abiding home of Vaishnava Hinduism. It is about 42 miles in length, with an average breadth of 30 miles, and is intersected throughout by the river Jamuna. On the right bank of the stream are the parganas of Kosi and Chhata—so named after their principal towns—with the home pargana below them to the south ; and on the left bank the united parganas of Mat and Noh-jhil, with half the pargana of Maha-ban as far east as the town of Baladeva. This extent of country is almost absolutely identical with the Braj-mandal of Hindu topography; the circuit of 84 Kos in the neighbourhood of Gokul and Brinda-ban, where the divine brothers Krishna and Balaram grazed their herds.

The first aspect of the country is a little disappointing to the student of San skrit literature, who has been led by the glowing eulogiums of the poets to antici pate a second Vale of Tempe. A similarly unfavourable impression is generally produced upon the mind of any chance traveller, who is carried rapidly along the dusty high-road, and can scarcely see beyond the hideous strip of broken ground which the engineers reserve on either side, in order to supply the soil required for annual repairs. As this strip is never systematically levelled, but is dug up into irregular pits and hollows, the size and depth of which are determined solely by the requirements of the moment, the effect is unsightly enough to spoil any landscape. The following unflattering description is that given by Mons. Victor Jacquemont, who came out to India on a scientific mission on behalf of the Paris Museum of Natural History, and passed through Agra and Mathura on his way to the Himalayas in the cold weather of 1829-30. “Nothing," he writes,” can be less picturesque than the Jamuna. The soil is sandy and the cultivated fields are intermingled with waste tracts, where scarce ly anything will grow but the Capparis aphylla and one or two kinds of zyzyphus. There is little wheat; barley is the prevailing cereal, with peas, sesamum, and cotton. In the immediate neighbourhood of the villages the Tamarix articulata gives a little shade with its delicate foliage, which is super latively graceful no doubt, but as melancholy as that of the pine, which it strangely resembles. The villages are far apart from one another and present every appearance of decay. Most of them are surrounded by strong walls flanked with towers, but their circuit often encloses only a few miserable cot- tages." After a lapse of 50 years the above description is still fairly applicable. The villages are now more populous and the mud walls by which they were protected, being no longer required, have been gradully levelled with the ground. But the general features remain unchanged. The soil, being poor and thin, is unfavourable to the growth of most large forest trees ; the mango and shisham, the glory of the lower Doab', are conspicuously absent, and the place is most inadequately supplied by the nim, faras, and various species the fig tribe. For the same reason the dust in any ordinary weather is deep on all the thoroughfares and, if the slightest air is stirring, rises in a dense cloud and veils the whole landscape in an impenetrable haze. The Jamuna, the one great river of Braj, during eight months of the year meanders sullenly, a mere rivulet, between wide expanses of sand, bounded by monotonous flats of arable land, or high banks, which the rapidly expended force of contributory torrents ha cracked and broken into ugly chasms and stony ravines, naked of all vegetation.

As the limits of Braj from north to south on one side are defined by the high lands to the east of the Jamuna, so are they on the other side by the hill ranges of Bharat-pur; but there are few peaks of conspicuous height and the general outline is tame and unimpressive. The villages, though large, are meanly, built, and betray the untidiness characteristic of Jats and Gujars, who form the bulk of the population. From a distance they are often picturesque, being built on the slope of natural or artificial mounds, and thus gaining dignity by elevation. But on nearer approach they are found to consist of labyrinths of the narrowest lanes winding between the mud walls of large enclosures, which are rather cattle-yards than houses. At the base of the hill is ordinarily Broad circle of meadow land, studded with low trees, which afford grateful shade and pasturage for the cattle ; while the large pond, from which the earth was dug to construct the village site, supplies them throughout the year with water. These natural woods commonly consist of pilu, chhonkar, and kadamb trees, among which are always interspersed clumps of karil with its leafless evergreen twigs and bright-coloured flower and fruit. The pasendu, papri, arni, hingot, gondi, barna, and dho also occur, but less frequently ; though the last-named, the Sanskrit dhava, at Barsana clothes the whole of the hill-side. At sun-rise and sun-set the thoroughfares are all but impassable, as the straggling herds of oxen and buffaloes leave and return to the homestead: for in the straitened precincts of an ordinary village are stalled every night from 500 or 600 to 1,000 head of cattle, at least equalling, often outnumbering, the human population.

The general poverty of the district forms the motif of the following popular Hindi couplet, in which Krishna's neglect to enrich the land of his birth with any choicer product than the karil, or wild caper, is cited as an illustration of his wilfulness:

कहा कहें रघुनाथ की गई सतलो नाहि ।
काबुल में मेवा करी टेंटी ब्रज की माहि ।।।

which may be thus done into English:

Krishna, you see, will never lose his wayward whims and vapours;
For Kabul teems with luscious fruit, while Braj boasts only capers.

In the rains however, at which season of the year all pilgrimages are made, the Jamuna is a mighty stream, a mile or more broad; its many contributory torrents and all the ponds and lakes, with which the district abounds, are filled to overflowing; the rocks and hills are clothed with foliage, the dusty plain is transformed into a green sward, and the smiling prospect goes far to justify the warm est panegyrics of the Hindu poets, whose appreciation of the scenery, it must be remembered, has been further intensified by religious enthusiasm. Even at all seasons of the year the landscape has a quiet charm of its own ; a sudden turn in the winding lane reveals a grassy knell with stone-built well and overhanging pipal; or some sacred grove, where gleaming tufts of karil and the white-blossomed arusa weed are dotted about between the groups of weird pilu trees with their clusters of tiny berries and strangely gnarled and twisted trunks, all entangled in a dense undergrowth of prickly ber and hins; and chhonkar: while in the centre, bordered with flowering oleander and nivara, a still cool lake reflects the modest shrine and well-fenced bush of tulsi that surmount the raised terrace, from which a broad flight of steps, gift of some thankful pilgrim from afar, leads down to the water's edge. The most pleasing architectural works in the district are the large masonry tanks, which are very numerous and often display excellent taste in design and skill in execution. The temples, though in some instances of considerable size, are all, excepting those in the three towns of Mathura. Brinda-ban and Gobardhan, utterly devoid of artistic merit.

To a very recent period almost the whole of this large area was pasture and woodland and, as we have already remarked, many of the villages are still environed with belts of trees. These are variously designated as ghana, jhari, rakhya, ban, or khandi, and are often of considerable extent. Thus, the Kokila-ban at Great Bathan covers 723 acres; the rakhya at Kamar more than 1,000; and in the contiguous villages of Pisaya and Karanla the rakhya and kadamb-khandi together amount to nearly as much. The year of the great famine, 1838 A. D., is invariably given as the date when the land began to be largely reclaimed; the immediate cause being the number of new roads which were then opened out for the purpose of affording employment to the starving population.

Almost every spot is traditionally connected with some event in the life of Krishna or of his mythical mistress Radha, sometimes to the prejudice of an earlier divinity. Thus, two prominent peaks in the Bharat-pur range are crowned with the villages of Nand-ganw and Barsana: of which the former is venerated as the home of Krishna's foster-father Nanda, and the latter as the residence of Radha's parents, Vrisha-bhanu and Kirat. Both legends are now as impli citly credited as the fact that Krishna was born at Mathura ; while in reality, the name Nand-ganw, the sole foundation for the belief, is an ingenious substi­tution for Nandisvar, a title of Maha-deva, and Barsana is a corruption of Brahma-sanu, the hill of Brahma. Only the Giri-raj at Gobardhan was, accord ing to the original distribution, dedicated to Vishnu, the second person of the tri-murti, or Hindu trinity; though now he is recognized as the tutelary divi nity at all three hill-places. Similarly, Bhau-ganw, on the right bank of the Jamuna, was clearly so called from Bhava, one of the eight manifestations of Siva ; but the name is now generally modified to Bhay-ganw, and is supposed to commemorate the alarm (bhay) felt in the neighbourhood at the time when Nanda, bathing in the river, was carried off by the god Varuna. A masonry landing-place on the water's edge called Nand-Ghat, with a small temple, dat ing only from last century, are the foundation and support of the local legend. Of a still more obsolete cultus, viz., snake-worship, faint indications may be detected in a few local names and customs. Thus, at Jait, on the highroad to Delhi, there is an ancient five-headed Naga, carved in stone, by the side of a small tank which occupies the centre of a low plain adjoining the village. It stands some four feet above the surface of the ground, while its tail was supposed to reach away to the Kali-mardan Ghat at Brinda-ban, a distance of seven miles. A slight excavation at the base of the figure has, for a few years at least, dispelled the local superstition. So again, at the village of Paiganw, a grove and lake called respectively Pai-ban and Pai-ban-kund are the scene of an annual fair known as the Barasi Naga ji mela. This is now regarded more as the anniversary of the death of a certain Mahant; but in all probability it dates from a much earlier period, and the village name would seem to be derived from the large offerings of milk (payas) with which it is usual to pro pitiate the Naga, or serpent-god.

Till the close of the 16th century, except in the neighbourhood of the one great thoroughfare, there was only here and there a scattered hamlet in the midst of reclaimed woodland. The Vaishnava cultus then first developed into its present form under the influence of Rupa and Sanâtana, the celebrated Bengali Gosains' of Brinda-ban ; and it is not improbable that they were the authors of the Brahma Vaivarta Purana the recognized Sanskrit authority for all the modern local legends. It was their disciple, Narayan Bhatt, who first established the Ban-jatra and Ras lila, and it was from him that every lake and grove in the circuit of Braj received a distinctive name, in addition to the some seven or eight spots which alone are mentioned in the earlier Puranas. In the course of time, small villages sprung up in the neighbourhood of the different shrines bearing the same name with them, though perhaps in a slightly modified form. Thus the khadira-ban, or ' acacia grove,' gives its name to the village of Khaira; and the. anjan pakhar, on whose green bank Krishna pencilled his lady's eye-brows with anjan, gives its name to the village of Ajnokh, occasionally written at greater length Ajnokhari. Similarly, when Krishna's home was fixed at Nand-ganw and Radha's at Barsana, a grove half-way between the two hills was fancifully selected as the spot where the youthful couple used to meet to enjoy the delights of love. There a temple was built with the title of Radha-Raman, and the village that grew up under its walls was called Sanket, that is, ‘place of assignation. Thus we may readily fall in with Hindu prejudice. and admit that many of the names on the map are etymologically connected with events in Krishna's life, and yet deny that those events have any real connection with the spot, inasmuch as neither the village nor the local name had any existence till centuries after the incidents occurred which they are supposed to commemorate.

The really old local names are almost all derived from the physical character of the country, which has always been celebrated for its wide extent of pasture land and many herds of cattle. Thus Gokul means originally a herd of kine; Gobardhan a rearer of kine; Mat is so called from mat, a milk-pail ; and Dadhiganw (contracted into Dah-grnw) in the Kosi pargana, from dadhi, `curds.' Thus, too, `Braj' in the first instance means ` a herd,' from the root vraj, ` to go,' in allusion to the constant moves of nomadic tribes. And hence it arises that in the earliest authorities for Krishna's adventures, both Vraja and Gokula are used to denote, not the definite localities now bearing those names, but any chance spot temporarily used for stalling cattle ; inattention to this archaism has led to much confusion in assigning sites to the various legends. The word ` Mathura' also is probably connected with the Sanskrit root math, `to churn;' the churn forming a prominent feature in all poetical descriptions of the local scenery. Take, for example, the following lines from the Harivansa, 3395:-

क्षेम्यं प्रचारवहुलं हृष्टपुष्टजनावृतं ।
दामनीप्रायवहुलं गर्गरोद्गारनिस्वनं ।।
तक्रनिस्राववहुलं दधिमण्डार्द्रमृत्तिकं ।
मन्थानवलयोद्गारै गोपीनां जनितस्वनं ।।

"A fine country of many pasture-lands and well-nurtured people, full of ropes for tethering cattle, resonant with the voice of the sputtering churn, and flowing with butter-milk ; where the soil is ever moist with milky froth, and the stick with its circling cord sputters merrily in the pail as the girls spin it round."

And, again, in section 73 of the same poem-

ब्रजेषु च विशेषेण गर्गरोद्गा

“In homesteads gladdened by the sputtering churn."

In many cases a false analogy has suggested a mythological derivation. Thus, all native scholars see in Mathura an allusion to Madhu-mathan, a title of Krishna. Again, the word Bathan is still current in some parts of India to designate a pasture ground, and in that sense has given a name to two exten sive parishes in Kosi ; but as the term is not a familiar one thereabouts, a legend was invented in explanation, and it was said that here Balarama ` sat down' (baithen) to wait for Krishna. The myth was accepted ; a lake imme diately outside the village was styled Bal-bhadra kund, was furnished with a handsome masonry ghat by Rup Ram, the Katara of Barsana, and is now regard ed as positive proof of the popular etymology which connects the place with Balarama. Of Rup Ram, the Katara, further mention will be made in connec tion with his birth-place, Barsana. There is scarcely a sacred site in the whole of Braj which does not exhibit some ruinous record, in the shape of temple or tank, of his unbounded wealth and liberality. His descendant in the fourth degree, a worthy man, by name Lakshman Das, lives in a corner of one of his ancestor's palaces and is dependent on charity for his daily bread. The present owners of many of the villages which Rup Ram so munificently endowed are the heirs of the Lala Babu, of whom also an account will be given further on.

In the Varaha Purana, or rather in the interpolated section of that work known as the Mathura Mahatmya, the Mathura Mandal is described as twenty yojanas in extent.

विंशतिर्योजनानां च माथुरं मम मंडलं ।।
यच यच नर: स्नातो मुच्यते सर्वपातके: ।।

“My Mathura circle is one of twenty yojanas ; by bathing at any place therein a man is redeemed from all his sins."

And taking the yojana as 7 miles and the kos as 13/4 mile, 20 yojanas would be nearly equal to 84 kos, the popular estimate of the distance travelled by the pilgrims in performing the Pari-krama, or ‘perambulation' of Braj. It is pro bable that if an accurate measurement were made, this would be found a very rough approximation to the actual length of the way; though liberal allowance must be made for the constant ins and outs, turns and returns, which ultimately result in the circuit of a not very wide-spread area. There can be no doubt that the number 84, which in ancient Indian territorial divisions occurs as frequently as a hundred in English counties, and which enters largely into every cycle of Hindu legend and cosmogony, was originally selected for such general adoption as being the multiple of the number of months in the year with the number of days in the week. It is therefore peculiarly appropriate in connec tion with the Braj Mandal ; if Krishna, in whose honour the perambulation is performed, be regarded as the Indian Apollo, or Sun-God. Thus, the magnifi cent temple in Kashmir, dedicated to the sun under the title of Martand, has a colonnade of exactly 84 pillars

It is sometimes said that the circle originally must have been of wider extent than now, since the city of Mathura, which is described as its centre, is more than 30 miles distant from the most northern point, Kotban, and only six from Tarsi to the south ; and Elliot in his glossary quotes the following couplet as fixing its limits :

इत बरहद इत सोनहद उत सूरसेन का गांव ।।
ब्रज चौरासी कोस में मथुरा मंडल मांह ।।

“On one side Bar, on another Sona. On the third the town of Surasen; these are the limits of the Braj Chaurasi, the Mathura circle." According to this authority the area has been diminished by one half; as Bar is in the Aligarh district, Sona, famous for its hot sulphur springs, is in Gur-ganw; while the ‘Surasen ka ganw' is supposed to be Batesar, a place of some note on the Jamuna and the scene of a large horse fair held on the full moon of Kartik. It might equally mean any town in the kingdom of Mathura, or even the capital itself, as King Ugrasen, whom Krishna restored to the throne, is sometimes styled Surasen. Thus, too, Arrian mentions Mathura as a chief town of the Suraseni, a people specially devoted to the worship of Her cules, who may be identified with Balarama : and Mann (II., 19) clearly intends Mathura by Surasena

कुरुक्षेत्रं च मत्स्याश्च पञ्चाल: शूरसेनका: ।।
एष व्रह्मार्षिदेशो वे व्रह्मावर्त्तादनन्तर: ।।

when he includes that country with Kuru-kshetra, Panchala and Matsya, in the region of Brahmarshi, as distinguished from Brahmavarta. But though it must be admitted that the circle is sometimes drawn with a wider circumference, as will be seen in the sequel to this chapter, still it is not certain which of the two rests upon the better authority. In any case, the lines above quoted cannot be of great antiquity, seeing that they con tain the Persian word hadd and, as regards the unequal distances between the city of Mathura and different points on the circumference, its only to be remembered that the circle is an ideal one, and any point within its outer verge may be roughly regarded as its centre.

As the anniversary of Krishna's birth is kept in the month of Bhâdon, it is then that the perambulation takes place, and a series of melas is held at the dif ferent woods, where the ras-lila is celebrated. This is an unwritten religious drama, which represents the most popular incidents in the life of Krishna, and thus corresponds very closely with the miracle plays of mediaeval Christendom. The arrangement of the performances forms the recognised occupation of a class of Brahmans residing chiefly in the villages of Karahla and Pisaya who are called Rasdharis and have no other profession or means of livelihood. The complete series of representations extends over a month or more, each scene being acted on the very spot with which the original event is traditionally con nected. The marriage scene, as performed at Sanket, is the only one that I have had the fortune to witness : with a garden-terrace for a stage, a grey stone temple for back-ground, the bright moon over head, and an occasional flambeau that shot a flickering gleam over the central tableau framed in its deep border of intent and sympathizing faces, the spectacle was a pretty one and was marked by a total absence of anything even verging upon indecorum. The cost of the whole perambulation with the performances at the different stations on the route is provided by some one wealthy individual, often a trader from Bombay or other distant part of India ; and as he is always accompanied by a large gathering of friends and retainers, numbering at least 200 or 300 persons, the outlay is seldom less than Rs. 5,000 or Rs. 6,000. The local Gosain, whom he acknowledges as his spiritual director, organizes all the arrangements through one of the Rasdharis, who collects the troupe (or mandali as it is called) of singers and musicians, and himself takes the chief part in the performance, declaiming in set recitative with the mandali for chorus, while the children who personate Radha and Krishna act only in dumb show.

The number of sacred places, woods, groves, ponds, wells, hills, and temples—all to be visited in fixed order-is very considerable ; there are generally reckoned five hills, eleven rocks, four lakes, eighty-four ponds, and twelve wells ; but the twelve bans or woods, and the twenty-four upabans or groves, are the characteristic feature of the pilgrimage, which is thence called the Ban-Jatra. The numbers 12 and 24 have been arbitrarily selected on account of their mystic significance; and few of the local pandits, if required to enumerate either group offhand, would be able to complete the total without some recourse to guesswork. A little Hindi manual for the guidance of pilgrims has been published at Mathura and is the popular authority on the subject. The compiler, however great his local knowledge and priestly reputation, has certainly no pretensions to accuracy of scholarship. His attempts at etymology are, as a rule, absolutely grotesque, as in the two sufficiently obvious names of Khaira (for Khadira) and Sher-garh (from the Emperor Sher Shah), the one of which he derives from khedna, ' to drive cattle,' and the other, still more preposterously, from sihara, ' a marriage crown.' The 'list which he gives is as follows, his faulty orthography in some of the words being corrected:-

The 12 Bans : Madhu-ban, Tal-ban, Kumud-ban, Bahula-ban, Kam-ban, Khadira-ban, Brinda-ban, Bhadra-ban, Bhandir-ban, Bel-ban, Loha-ban and Maha-ban.

The 24 Upabans : Gokul, Gobardhan, Barsana, Nand-ganw, Sanket, Para madra, Aring, Sessai, Mat, Uncha-ganw, Khel-ban, Sri-kund, Gandharv-ban, Parsoli, Bilchhu, Bachh-ban, Adi-badri, Karahla, Ajnokh, Pisaya, Kokila-ban, Dadhi-ganw, Kot-ban, and Raval.

This list bears internal evidence of some antiquity in its want of close correspondence with existing facts ; since several of the places, though retaining their traditionary repute, have now nothing that can be dignified with the name either of wood or grove ; while others are known only by the villagers in the immediate neighbourhood and have been supplanted in popular estimation by rival sites of more easy access or greater natural attractions.

Starting from Mathura, the pilgrims made their first halt at Madhu-ban, in the village of Maholi, some four or five miles to the south-west of the city. Here, according to the Puranas, Rama's brother, Satrughna, after hewing down the forest stronghold of the giant Madhu, founded on its site the town of Madhu-puri. All native scholars regard this as merely another name for Mathura, regardless of the fact that the locality is several miles from the river, while Mathura has always, from the earliest period, been described as situate on its immediate bank. The confusion between the two places runs apparently through the whole of classical Sanskrit literature; as, for example, in the Harivansa (Canto 95) we find the city founded by Satrughna distinctly called, not Madhu-puri, but Mathura, which Bhima, the king of Gobardhan, is repre sented as annexing :-

शत्रुघ्नो लवणं हत्त्वा चिच्छेद स मधोर्वनं ।।
तस्मिन्मधुवने स्थाने पुरीञ्च मथुरामिमां ।।
निवेशयामास विभु: सुमिचानन्दवर्द्धन: ।।
पर्य्याये चैव रामस्य भरतस्य तथैव च ।।
सुमिचासुतयोश्चैव प्राप्तयो र्वैष्णवं पदं ।।
भीमेनेयं पुरी तेन राज्यसम्बन्धकारणत् ।।
स्ववंशे स्थापिता पूर्व्वं स्वयमध्यासिता तथा ।।

When Sumitra's delight, prince Satrughna, had killed Lavana, he cut down the forest of Madhu, and in the place of that Madhu-ban founded the present city of Mathura. Then, after Rama and Bharata had left the world, and the two sons of Sumitra had taken their place in heaven, Bhima, in order to consolidate his dominions, brought the city, which had formerly been inde pendent, under the sway of his own family."

Some reminiscence of the ancient importance of Maholi would seem to have long survived ; for though so close to Mathura, it was, in Akbar's time and for many years subsequently, the head of a local division. By the sacred wood is a pond called Madhu-kund and a temple dedicated to Krishna under his title of Chatur-bhuj, where an annual mela is held on the 11th of the dark fortnight of Bhadon.

From Maholi, the pilgrims turn south to Tal-ban, ' the palm grove,' where Balarama was attacked by the demon Dhenuk. The village in which it is situated is called Tarsi, probably in allusion to the legend ; though locally the name is referred only to the founder, one Tara Chand, a Kachhwaha Thakur, who in quite modern time moved to it from Satoha, a place a few miles off on the road to Gobardhan. They then visit Kumud-ban, ' of the many water-lilies,' in Uncha-ganw, and Bahulaban in Bathi, where the cow Bahula, being seized by a tiger, begged the savage beast to spare her life for a few minutes, while she went away and gave suck to her little one. On her return, bringing the calf with her, the tiger vanished and Krishna appeared in his stead ; for it was the god himself who had made this test of her truthfulness. The event is comme morated by the little shrine of Bahula Gae, still standing on the margin of the Krishna-kund.'

They next pass through the villages of Tos, Jakhin-ganw, and Mukharai, and arrive at Radha-kund, where are the two famous tanks prepared for Krishna's expiatory ablution after he had slain the bull Arishta. Thence they pass on to Gobardhan, scene of many a marvellous incident, and visit all the sacred sites in its neighbourhood ; the village of Basai, where the two divine children with their foster-parents once came and dwelt (basae) ; the Kallol-kund by the grove of Aring ; Madhuri-kund ; Mor-ban, the haunt of the peacock, and Chandra-sarovar, the moon lake ;' where Brahma, joining with the Gopis in the mystic dance, was so enraptured with delight that, all uncon scious of the fleeting hours, he allowed the single night to extend over a period of six months. This is at a village called Parsoli by the people, but which appears on the maps and in the revenue-roll only as Muhammad-pur. The tank is a fine octagonal basin with stone ghats, the work of Raja Nahar Sinh of Bharat-pur. After a visit to Paitha, where the people of Braj `came in' (paitha) to take shelter from the storms of Indra under the uplifted range, they pass along the heights of the Giri-raj to Anyor, the other side,' and so by many sacred rocks, as Sugandhi-sila, Sinduri-sila, and Sundar-sila, with its temple of Gobardhan-nath, to Gopal-pur, Bilchhu, and Ganthauli, where the marriage 'knot' (ganth) was tied, that confirmed the union of Radha and Krishna.

Then, following the line of frontier, the pilgrims arrive at Kam-ban, now the head-quarters of a tahsili in Bharat-pur territory, 39 miles from Mathura, with the Luk-luk cave, where the boys played blind-man's buff ; and Aghasur's cave, where the demon of that name was destroyed ; and leaving Kanwaro ganw, enter again upon British ground near the village of Uncha-ganw, with its ancient temple of Baladeva. High on the peak above is Barsana, with its series of temples dedicated to Larliji, where Radha was brought up by her parents, Brikhhbhan and Kirat ; and in the glade below, Dohani-kund near Chaksauli, where as Jasoda was cleansing her milk-pail (dohani) she first saw the youthful pair together, and vowed that one day they should be husband and wife. There too is Prem Sarovar, or love lake, where first the amorous tale was told ; and Sankari Khor, ` the narrow opening ' between the hills, where Krishna lay in ambush and levied his toll of milk on the Gopis as they came in from Gahvarban, the ` thick forest' beyond.. Next are visited Sanket, the place of assignation : Rithora, home of Chandravali, Radha's faithful attendant ; and Nand-ganw, long the residence of Nanda and Jasoda, with the great lake Pan-Sarovar at the foot of the hill, where Krishna morning and evening drove his foster-father's cattle to water (pan). Next in order come Karahla,'foster-father's cattle to water (pan). Next in order come Karahla, with its fine kadamb trees ; Kamai, where one of Radha's humble friends was honoured by a visit from her lord and mistress in the course of their rambles : Ajnokh,( Ajnokh or, in its fuller form, Ajnokhari, is a contractions for Anjan Pokhar, ‘the anjan lake) where Krishna pencilled his lady's eyebrows with anjan as she reclined in careless mood on the green sward : and Pisaya, where she found him fainting with ` thirst,' and revived him with a draught of water. Then still bearing due north the pilgrims come to Khadira-ban, `the acacia grove,' in Khaira; Kumar-ban and Javak-ban in Jau, where Krishna tinged his lady's feet with the red Javak dye, and Kokila-ban, ever musical with the voice of the cuckoo' ; and so arrive at the base of Charan Pahar in Little Bathan, the favoured spot, where the minstrel god delighted most to stop and play his flute, and where Indra descended from heaven on his elephant Airavata, to do him homage, as is to this day attested by the prints of the divine ` feet' charan, impressed upon the rock.

They then pass on through Dadhi-ganw, where Krishna stayed behind to divert himself with the milk-maids, having sent Baladeva on ahead with the cows to wait for him at Bathan : and so reach Kot-ban, the northernmost point of the perambulation. The first village on the homeward route is Sessai (a hamlet of Hathana), where Krishna revealed his divinity by assuming the emblems of Narayan and reclining under the canopying heads of the great serpent Sesha, of whom Baladeva was an incarnation ; but the vision was all too high a mystery for the herdsmen's simple daughters, who begged the two boys to doff such fan­tastic guise and once more, as they were wont, join them in the sprightly dance Then, reaching the Jamuna at Khel-ban by Shergarh, where Krishna's tem ples were, decked with ` the marriage wealth' (sihara), they follow the course of the river through Bihar-ban in Pir-pur, and by Chirghat in the village of Siyara, where the frolicsome god stole the bathers" clothes' (chir), and arrive at Nand-ghat. Here Nanda, bathing one night, was carried off by the myrmidons of the sea-god Varuna, who had long been lying in wait for this very purpose, since their master knew that Krishna would at once follow to recover his foster-father, and thus, the depths of ocean, too, no less than earth, would be gladdened with the vision of the incarnate deity. The adjoining village of Bhay-ganw derives its name from the `terror' (bhay) that ensued on the news of Nanda's disappear ance. The pilgrims next pass through Bachh-ban, where the demon Bach hasur was slain; the two villages of Basai, where the Gopis were first `subdued' (bas-ai) by the power of love ; Atas, Nari-semri, Chhatikra, and Akrur, where Kansa's perfidious invitation to the contest of arms was received; and wend their way beneath the temple of Bhatrond, where one day, when the boys' stock of provisions had run short, some Brahmans' wives supplied their wants, though the husbands, to whom application was first made, had churlishly refused. So they arrive at Brinda-ban, where many a sacred ghat and venerable shrine claim devout attention. The pilgrims then cross the river and visit the tangled thickets of Bel-ban in Jahangir-pur; the town of Mat with the adjoining woods of Bhadra-ban, scene of the great conflagration, and Bhandir-ban, where the son of Rohini first received his distinctive title of Balarams, i.e., Rama the strong, in conse quence of the prowess he had displayed in vanquishing the demon Pralamba; Dangoli, where Krishna dropt his ' staff (dang) scene of a fit of lover's `pettishness' (man). Then follow the villages of Piparauli, with its broad spreading pipal trees; Loha-ban, perpetuating the defeat of the demon Lohasuri Gopalpur, favourite station of the herdsmen, and Raval, where Radha's mother, Kirat, lived with her father, Surbhan, till she went to join her husband at Barsana. Next comes Burhiya-ka-khera, home of the old dame whose son had taken in marriage Radha's companion, Manvati. The fickle Krishna saw and loved, and in order to gratify his passion undisturbed, assumed the husband's form. The unsuspecting bride received him fondly to her arms ; while the good mother was enjoined to keep close watch below and, if any one came to the door pretending to be her son by no means to open to him, but rather, if he persisted, pelt him with brick-bats till he ran away. So the honest man lost his wife and got his head broken into the bargain.

After leaving the scene of this merry jest, the pilgrims pass on to Bandi ganw, a name commemorative of Jasoda's two faithful domestics, Bandi and Anandi, and arrive at Baladeva, with its wealthy temple dedicated in honour of that divinity and hit spouse, Revati. Then, beyond the village of Hathaura, are the two river landing-places, Chinta-haran, ' the end of doubt,' and Brahmanda, 'creation,' ghat. Here Krishna's playmates came running to tell Jasoda that the naughty boy had filled his mouth with mud. She took up a stick to punish him, but he, to prove the story false, unclosed his lips and showed her there, within the compass of his baby cheeks, the whole 'created' universe with all its worlds and circling seas distinct. Close by is the town of Maha-ban, famous for many incidents in Krishna's infancy, where he was rocked in the cradle, and received his name from the great pandit Garg, and where he put to death Putana and the other evil spirits whom Kansa had commissioned to destroy him. At Gokul, on the river-bank, are innumerable shrines and tem ples dedicated to the god under some one or other of his favourite titles, Madan Mohan, Madhava. Rae, Brajesvara, Gokul-nath, Navanit-priya, and Dwaraka-nath: and when all have been duly honoured with a visit, the weary pilgrims finally recross the stream and sit down to rest at the point from which they started, the Visrant Ghat, the holiest place in the holy city of Mathura.

As may be gathered from the above narrative, it is only the twelve bans that, as a rule, are connected with the Pauranik legends of Krishna and Bala-rams, and these are all specified by name in the Mathura Mahatmya. On the other hand, the twenty-four upabans refer mainly to Radha's adventures, and have no ancient authority whatever. Of the entire number, only three were, till quite recent times, places of any note, viz., Gokul, Gobardhan, and Radha-kund, and their exceptional character admits of easy explanation: Gokul, in all classi cal Sanskrit literature, is the same as Maha-ban, which is included among the bans; Gobardhan is as much a centre of sanctity as Mathura itself, and is only for the sake of uniformity inserted in either list.; while Radha-kund, as the name denotes, is the one primary source from which the goddess derives her modern reputation. It is now insisted that the parallelism is in all respects complete; for, as Krishna has four special dwelling-places, Mathura, Mahâ-ban, Gobardhan, and Nand-ganw, so has Radha four also in exact correspondence, viz., Brinda-ban, Raval, Radha-kund, and Banana.

The perambulation, as traced in the foregoing sketch, is the one ordinarily performed, and includes all the most popular shrines, but a far more elaborate enumeration of the holy places of Braj is given in a Sanskrit work, existing only in manuscript, entitled Vraja-bhakti-vilasa. It is of no great antiquity, having been compiled, in the year 1553 A.D., by the Narayan Bhatt, who has been already mentioned. He is said to have been a resident of Uncha-gânw near Banana, but he describes himself as writing at Sri-kund, i. e., Radha-kund. It is divided into 13 sections extending over 108 leaves, and is professedly based on the Paramahansa Sanhita. It specifies as many as 133 bans or woods, 91 on the right bank of the Jamnuá and 42 on the left, and groups them under differ ent heads as follows:

I—The 12 Bans :1, Maha-ban ; 2, Kamya-ban ; 3, Kokila-ban ; 4, Tal-ban; 5, Kumud-ban ; 6, Bhandir-ban ; 7, Chhatra-ban ; 8, Khadir-ban ; 9, Loha-­ban, 10, Bhadra-ban ; 11, Bahula-ban ; 12, Vilva-ban, i.e., Bel-ban.

II.—The 12 Upabans: 1, Brahma-ban; 2, Apsara-ban ; 3, Vihvala-ban ; 4, Kadamb-ban ; 5, Svarna-ban; 6, Surabhi-ban ; 7, Prem-ban ; 8, Mayura, i. e., Mor-ban ; 9, Manengiti-ban; 10, Sesha-saiyi-ban ; 11, Narada-ban ; 12, Paramananda-ban.

III.—The 12 Prati-bans : 1, Ranka-ban ; 2, Varta-ban ; 3, Karahla ; 4, Kamya- ban ; 5, Anjana-ban ; 6, Kama-ban ; 7, Krishna-kshipanaka ; 8, Nanda-prekshana ; 9, Indra-ban; 10, Siksha-ban ; 11, Chandravati-ban; 12, Lohaban.

IV.—The 12 Adhi-bans: 1, Mathura; 2, Radha-knnd; 3, Nanda-grams ; 4, Gata-sthana ; 5, Lalita-grama ; 6, Brisha-bhanu-pur ; (7, Gokul ; 8, Baladeva ; 9, Gobardhan ; 10, Java-ban ; 11, Brinda-ban; 12, Sanket.

V.—The 5 Sevya-bans; VI. the 12 Tapo-bans; VII the 12 Moksha-bans; VIII. the 12 Kama-bans ; IX. the 12 Artha-bans ; X. the 12 Dharma-bans ; XI the 12 Siddhi-bans—all of which the reader will probably think it unne cessary to enumerate in detail.

To every ban is assigned its own tutelary divinity; thus Halayudha (Baladeva) is the patron of Maha-ban ; Gopinath of Kam-ban ; Nata-vara of Kokila-ban ; Damodar of Tal-ban ; Kesava of Kumud-ban ; Sridhara of Bhandir ban; Hari of Chhatra-ban; Narayan of Khadiraban; Hayagriva of Bhadra ban ; Padma-nabha of Bahula-ban ; Janardana of Bel-ban ; Adi-vadrisvara of Paramananda ; Paramesvara of Kam-ban (prati-ban) ; Jasoda-nandan of Nand ganw ; Gokulchandrama of Gokul ; Murlidhar of Karahla ; Lila-kamala-lochana of Hasya-ban; Lokesvara of Upahara-ban; Lankadhipa-kula-dhvansi of Jahnu-ban; and Srishatsilankshyana of Bhuvans-ban.

The four last-named woods are given as the limits of the Braj Mandal in the following sloka, and it is distinctly noted that the city of Mathura is at the same distance, viz., 21 kos, from each one of them :

पूर्व हास्यवनं नीय पश्चिमस्यापहारिकं ।।
दक्षिणे जन्हुसंज्ञाकं भुवनाख्यं तथोतरे ।।

The Pandits, who were asked to reconcile these limits with those mentioned in the Hindi couplet previously quoted, declared Hasya-ban in the east to be the same as Barhadd in Aligarh: Upahara-ban in the west as Sona in Gurganw; Jahnu-ban to the south the same as Surasen-ka-ganw, or Batesar; and Bhuvana ban to the north, Bhukhanban near Shergarh. The identification is probably little more than conjectural; but a superstition, which is at once both comparatively modern and also practically obsolete, scarcely deserves a more protracted inves tigation than has already been bestowed upon it.

Next to the Ban-jatra, the most popular local festvity is the Holi, which is observed for several days in succession at different localities. Several of the usages are, I believe, entirely unknown beyond the limits of Braj, even to the people of the country ; and, so far as I could ascertain by enquiries, they had never been witnessed by any European. Accordingly, as the festival fell unusually early in 1877, while the weather was still cool enough to allow of a mid-day ride without serious inconvenience, I took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded me and made the round of all the principal villages in the Chhata and Kosi parganas where the rejoicings of the Phul Dol, for so these Hindu Saturnalia are popularly termed, are celebrated with any peculiarities, visiting each place on its special fete-day. The following is an account of what I saw:

Feb. 22nd, Barsana, the Rangila Holi.—In the middle of the town is a small open square, about which are grouped the stately mansions and temples built by the great families who resided here during the first half of the 18th century. A seat in the balcony over the gateway of the house still occupied by the impoverished descendants of the famous Katara, Rup Ram, the founder of Barsana's short-lived magnificence, commands a full view of the humours of the crowd below. The cheeriness of the holiday-makers as they throng the narrow winding streets on their way to and from the central square, where they break up into groups of bright and ever-varying combinations of colour ; with the buffooneries of the village clowns and the grotesque dances of the lusty swains, who with castanets in hand caricature in their movements the conventional graces of the Indian ballet-girl,

Crispum sub crotalo docta movere latus,

all make up a sufficiently amusing spectacle ; but these are only interludes and accessories to the great event of the day. This is a sham fight between the men from the neighbouring village of Nand-ganw and the Barsana ladies, the wives of the Gosains of the temple of Larli Ji, which stands high on the crest of the rock that overlooks the arena. The women have their mantles drawn down over their faces and are armed with long heavy bambus, with which they deal their opponents many shrewd blows on the head and shoulders. The latter defend themselves as best they can with round leather shields and stags' horns. As they dodge in and out amongst the crowd and now and again have their flight cut off and are driven back upon the band of excited viragoes, many laughable incidents occur. Not unfrequently blood is drawn, but an accident of the kind is regarded rather as an omen of good fortune and has never been known to give rise to any ill-feeling. Whenever the fury of their female assailants appears to be subsiding, it is again excited by the men shouting at them snatches of the following ribald rhymes. They are not worth translation, since they consist of nothing but the repetition of the abusive word sala, applied to every person and thing in Barsana. That town being the reputed home of Radha, the bride, its people are styled her brothers ; while the Nand-ganw men account themselves the brothers of Krishna, the bridegroom:

श्रीभांडबधाई बरसांने की ।
सब सारे बरसांनेबारे रावलबारे सारे ।
जगन्नाथके नाती सारे वे बरसांनेबारे ।।
लवानियां और कटारे सारे जे बरसांनेबारे ।
डोंम ढड़ेरे सबही सारे और पत्तराबारे ।।
बाग बगीचा सबही सारे सारे सींचनबारे ।
बिरकत और गुठरिया सारे लंबे सुतनाबारे ।।
बाबाजी भानोंखरि सारे प्रेंमसरोवरबारे ।
खाट खटोला सबही सारे चोका चूल्हे सारे ।।
अहलायत महलायत सारे सारे खंभ तिहारे ।
अगवारे पिछवारे सारे गेल गिरारे सारे ।।

Feb. 23rd, Nand-ganw.—Another sham fight, as on the preceding day, only with the characters reversed; the women on this occasion being the wives of the Gosains of the Nand-ganw temple, and their antagonists the men of Barsana. The combatants are drawn up more in battle-array, instead of skirmishing by twos and threes, and rally round a small yellow pennon that is carried in their midst ; but the show is less picturesque in its accessories, being held on a very dusty spot outside the town, and was more of a Phallic orgie:

Feb. 27th, the Holi. Phalen.—Here is a sacred pond called Prahlad kund, and the fact of its having preserved its original name gives a clue, as in so many parallel oases, to the older form of the name now borne by the village. Local pandits would derive the word phalen from the verb pharna, "to tear in pieces," with a reference to the fate of Prahlad's impious father, Hiranya-Kasipu: but such a formation would be contrary both to rule and to experience, and the word is, beyond a doubt, a corruption of Prahlada-grama.

Arriving at the village about an hour before sunset, I found a crowd of some 5,000 people closely packed in the narrow spaces on the margin of the pond and swarming over the tops of the houses and the branches of all the trees in the neighbourhood. A large bonfire had been stacked half-way between the pond and a little shrine dedicated to Prahlad, inside which the Khera-pat, or Panda, who was to take the chief part in the performance of the day, was sitting telling his beads. At 6 P. M. the pile was lit, and, being com posed of the most inflammable materials, at once burst into such a tremendous blase that I felt myself scorching, though the little hillock were I was seated was a good many yards away. However, the lads of the village kept on Punning close round it, jumping and dancing and brandishing their lathis, while the Panda went down and dipped in the pond and then, with his dripping pagri and dhoti on, ran back and made a feint of passing through the fire. In reality he only jumped over the outermost verge of the smoul dering ashes and then dashed into his cell again, much to the dissatisfaction of the spectators, who say that the former incumbent used to do it much more thoroughly. If on the next recurrence of the festival the Panda shows himself equally timid, the village proprietors threaten to eject him, as an impostor, from the land which he holds rent-free simply on the score of his being fire-proof.

Feb. 28th, Kosi.-After sitting a little while at a nach of the ordinary character, given by one of the principal traders in the town, I went on to see the chaupais, or more special Holi performances, got up by the different bodies of Ját zamindars, each in their own quarter of the town. The dancers, exclu sively men and boys, are all members of the proprietory clan, and are all dressed alike in a very high waisted full skirted white robe, reaching to the ankles, called a jhaga, with a red pagri, in which is set at the back of the head a long tinsel plume, kalangi, to represent the peacock feathers with which Krishna was wont to adorn himself as he rambled through the woods. The women stand at one end of the court-yard with their mantle drawn over their faces and holding long lathis, with which, at a later period of the proceedings, they join in the Holi sports. Opposite them are the bandsmen with drums, cymbals and timbrels, and at their back other men with sticks and green twigs, which they brandish about over their heads. The space in the middle is circled by torch-bearers and kept clear for the dancers, who are generally six in number, only one pair dancing at a time. Each performer, in the dress as above described, has a knife or dagger in his right hand and its scabbard in his left. At first, darting forward, they make a feint of thrust ing at the women or other spectators, and then pointing the knife to their own breast they whirl round and round, generally backwards, the pace growing faster and more furious and the clash of the band louder and louder, till at last they sink down, with their flowing robe spread out all round them, in a sort of curtsey, and retire into the back ground, to be succeeded by another pair of performers. After a pair of men comes a pair of boys, and so on alternately with very little variation in the action. Between the dances a verse or two of a song is sung, and at the end comes the Holi Khelna. This is a very monotonous performance. The women stand in a line, their faces veiled, and each with a lathi ornamented with bands of metal and gaudy pendents, like the Bacchantes of old with the thyrsus, and an equal number of men oppose them at a few yards' interval. The latter advance slowly with a defiant air and continue shouting snatches of scurrilous song till they are close upon the women, who then thrust out their lathis, sand without uttering a word follow them as they turn their back and retreat to their original stand ing-place. Arrived there, they let the women form again in line as they were at first and then again advance upon them precisely as before, and so it goes on till their repertory of songs is exhausted, or they have no voice left to sing them. To complete my descriptions I here give some specimens of these sakhis or verses, and have added notes to all the words that seemed likely to require explanation. They are many of them too coarse and at the same time too stupid to make it desirable for me to translate them in full.

होली खेलने के समय की साखी ।

बूझो याहि संग चलेगी ।
सई सांझ से धरी कर्हैया आधीरात नसेगी ।।१।।

हरलेगै चीर मुरारी ।
लैके चीर कदम पै बैठे हम जल मांझ उघारी ।।
तुम्हरो चीर जबै हम दैं हैं जल ते होजाउ न्यारी ।
जो हम जल ते न्यारी होंगी जायगी लाज तिहारी ।।
चीर हमारो देहु सांवरे तुम जीते हम हारी ।।२।।

राधे क्यों दलगीरी मन में ।
कै कहूं स्याम सेज न आए कै परगई चूक भजन में ।।३।।

बिंदाबन से बन नहीं नंदगांव से गांव ।
बंसीबट से बट नहीं कृष्ण नाम से नांव ।।४।।

ब्रज चौरासी कोसमें चार गांव निज धाम ।
ब्रंदाबन अरु मधपुरी बरसानो नंदगांम ।।५।।

राधे दीजै बंसी मेरी ।
कै दीजै कै नाहीं कीजै देख गरीबी मेरी ।।६।।

मन मोहन खेले होरी ।
घर घर तें बनता बन आइंर् अपनी अपनी जोरी ।।
इत ते निकसे कुंवर कन्हैया इत ब्रषभान किशोरी ।
ताल मृदंग झांझ डप बाजै मोंह चंगन की जोरी ।।
उड़त गुलाल लाल भय बादर केसर गागर घोरी ।।७।।

होरी खेलें श्रीगिरिधारी । कौनस पै केसरिया बानौ कौन पै चीर हजारी ।।
कान्हा पै केसरिया बानौ राधे चीर हजारी ।।
कौन के हाथ गडूरा सोहै कौनस पै पिचकारी ।।
राधे हाथ गडूरा सोहे कान्हा पै पिचकारी ।।८।।

दधि पीजा स्याम सलोना ।
काहे की तेरी बनी मथनिया काहे के तेरे दौना ।।
ब्रजरज की मेरी बनी मथनिया कदम पात के दौना ।।९।।

मेरी स्याम बिना कल काते ।
झुर झुर पिंजर व्है गई राधे सूखलगी पलकाते ।।१०।।

दधि कौ तू चोर कन्हैया ।
दधि मेरी खाय मथनिया फोरी और मरोरी बैंया ।।११।।

दधि लूट लई दगरे में ।
दधि मेरी खाय मथनिया फोरी ग्वाल बाल सगरेने ।।
उंगरी में की मुंदरी लूटी नौलखहार गरेमें ।।
बाजूबंद खण्ला लूटे नथ राखी झगरे में ।।१२।।

ऐसो कब करहे मन मेरो ।
ब्रजबासिन के टूक भूक में घर घर छांछ महेरो ।।
भूक लगै जल मांग खातहूं सांझ गिनू न सवेरो ।। १३ ।।

कान्हा धरे रे मुकट खेले होरी ।
एक ओर खेले कुंवर कन्हैया एक ओर राधा गोरी ।।१४।।

इन गलियन काम कहा तेरा ।
इन गलियन मेरो स्यालू फार्यो में तो फारूंगी यार झगा तेरो ।। १५ ।।

खिसली तोहि देख अटा ते ।
तू जु कहेहो तोहि अध्वर लूंगो अब मेरी टूटी है बांह बरा ते ।। १६ ।।

कब निकसेगो सूक चले चालौ ।
गोरीने डोला सजवायो रसियाने सिकल कर्यो भालो ।। १७ ।।

जोरी मत करे मान राख देंउगी ।
रंग महल मेरो पलंग बिछ्यो हे व्हां तेरो जोम डाट लेंउगी ।। १८ ।।

संग सोयवेकी द्योस कही होती ।
माटी खोदन गई खदाने व्हां मेरी बांह गही होती।।१९।।

March 1st, Kosi-Spend an hour or two in the afternoon as a spectator of the Holi sports at the Gomati-Kund. Each of the six Jat villages of the Denada Pal has two or more chaupdis, which come up one after the other in a long procession, stopping at short intervals on the way to dance in the manner above described, but several at a time instead of in single pairs. One of the performers executed a pas de seul mounted on a daf, or large timbrel, which was supported on the shoulders of four other men of his troupe. Bands of mummers (or swangs) were also to be seen, one set attired as Muhammadan fakirs, another (ghayalon ka swang) as wounded warriors, painted with streaks, as it were of blood, and with sword-blades and daggers so bound on to their neck and arms and other parts of the body that they seemed to be transfixed by them. Some long iron rods were actually thrust through their protruded tongue and their cheeks, and in this ghastly guise and with drawn swords in their hsands, with which they kept on dealing and parrying blows, the pair of combatants peram bulated the crowd. March 2nd.-At 2 P.m. ride over to Bathen for the Holanga mela, and find a place reserved for me on a raised terrace at the junction of four streets in the cen tre of the village. Every avenue was closely packed with the densest throng, and the house-tops seemed like gardens of flowers with the bright dresses of the women. Most of them were Jats by caste and wore their distinctive costume, a petticoat of coarse country stuff worked by their own hands with figures of birds, beasts, and men, of most grotesque design, and a mantle thickly sewn all over with discs of tale, which flash like mirrors in the sun and quite dazzle the sight. The performers in the chaupai could scarcely force their way through the crowd, much less dance, but the noise of the band that followed close at their heels made up for all shortcomings. There was a great deal of singing, of a very vociferous and probably also a very licentious character; but my ears were not offended, for in the general din it was impossible to distinguish a single word. Handfuls of red powder (abir) mixed with tiny particles of glistening talc were thrown about, up to the balconies above and down on the heads of the people below, and seen through this atmosphere of coloured cloud, the frantic gestures of the throng, their white clothes and faces all stained with red and yellow patches, and the great timbrels with bunches of peacocks' feathers, artifical flowers and tinsel stars stuck in their rim, borne above the players' heads and now and again tossed up high in the air, com bined to form a curious and picturesque spectacle. After the music came a posse of rustics each is bearing a rough jagged branch of the prickly acacia, stript of its leaves, and in their centre one man with a small yellow pennon on a long staff, yellow being the colour appropriate to the Spring season and the God of Love. The whole party slowly made its way through the village to an open plain outside, where the crowd assembled cannot have numbered less than 15,000. Here a circular arena was cleared and about a hundred of the Bathen Jatnis were drawn up in a line, each with a long bambu in her hands, and confronting them an equal number of the bough-men who are all from the neighbouring village of Jau. A sham fight ensued, the women trying to beat down the thorny bushes and force their way to the flag. A man or two got a cut in the face, but the most perfect good humour prevailed, except when an outsider from some other village attempted to join in the play; he was at once hustled out with kicks and blows that meant mischief. The women were backed up by their own husbands, who stood behind and encouraged them by word, but did not move a hand to strike. When it was all over, many of the spectators ran into the arena and rolled over and over in the dust, or streaked themselves with it on the forehead, taking it as the dust hallowed by the feet of Krishna and the Gopis. The forenoon had been devoted to the recitation of Hindi poems appro priate to the occasion. I was not on the spot in time enough to hear any of this, but with some difficulty I obtained for a few days the loan of the volume that was used, and have copied from it three short pieces. The actual M.S. is of no greater antiquity than 1776 A. D., the colophon at the end, in the curious mixture of Sanskrit and Hindi affected by village pandits, standing thus: Sambat 1852 Bhadrapad sudi 2 dwitiya, rabibar, bikhitam idam pustakam, Sri Gopal Das Charan-Pahari' madhye parkan arthi Sri Seva Das Bari Bathain vasi : but probably many successive copies have been made since the original was thumbed to pieces. The first stanzas, which are rather prettily worded, are, or at least profess to be, the composition of the famous blind poet Stir Das.

।। पद ।।
तेरी गति जानी न परै करुणामै हो
आगम अगम अगाधि अगोचर केइवुधिविधिसचरै ।।
अति प्रचंड बल पौरिषतामें केहरि भूष मरै ।
अनाआस बिन उद्दिदम कियैं अजगर पेट परै ।।
कवहुक चन डूवत पानीमें कवहुक सिला तिरै ।
वागरमें सागर करिडारै चहुंदिस नीर भरै ।।
रीत भरै भरे फिर डारै मैहरि करै तो फेरि भरै ।
पाहन बीच कमल परगासै जलमें अगिन जरै ।।

VERSEN BY DAMODAR DAS

राजा रंक रंकते राजा ले सिरछत्र धरै ।
सूर पतित तिरिजाय छिनकमें जो प्रभु नैंक ढरै ।।

Translation.

"Thy ways are past knowing, full of compassion, Supreme Intelligence unapproachable, unfathomable beyond the cognizance of the senses, moving in fashion mysterious.

"A lion, most mighty in strength and courage, dies of hunger ; a snake fills his belly without labour and without exertion.

“Now a straw sinks in the water, now a stone floats : he plants an ocean in the desert, a flood fills it all round.

“The empty is filled, the full is upset, by his grace it is filled again; the lotus blossoms from the rock and fire burns in the water.

“A king becomes a beggar and again a beggar a king with umbrella over his head: even the guiltiest (says Sur Das) in an instant is saved, if the Lord helps him the least."

The second piece, in a somewhat similar strain, is by Damodar Das:

।। पद ।।
अरे मन भजिलै नंदलला ।
गृह बांननमें रह्यौ किन कोऊ पकरत नाहि पला ।।
वेद पुरान संमृत यौं भाषौ याते नाहि भला ।
दिन दिन बढ़त प्रताप चौगुनौ जैसैं चंद्रकला ।।
काकौ धन काकौ गृह संपति काके सुत अबला ।
दामोदर कछु थिर न रहैगौ जगमें चलीचला ।।

Translation.

"Come, my soul, adore- Nand-lala (i. e., Krishna), whether living in the house or in the woods (i. e., whether a. man of the world or a hermit), there is no other help to lay hold of.

“The Veda, the Puranas, and the Law declare that nothing is better than this; every day honour increases four-fold, like the moon in its degrees.

“Who has wealth? who has house and fortune? who has son and wife? says Damodar, nought will remain secure in the world: it is gone in a moment."

The third piece, an encomium of the blooming spring, is too simple to require any translation:

राग बसंत ।।
नवल बसंत नवल बृंदाबन नवलै फूले फूल ।
नवलै कान्ह नवल सब गोपी निर्तत पकैतूल ।।
नवलै साष जवादि कुमकुमा नवलै बसन अमूल ।
नवलै छीट बनी केसरिकी मेटत मनमथ मूल ।।
नवल गुलाल उड़ै रंगबूका नवल पवनके झूल ।
नवलहीं बाजे बाजैं श्रीभट कालिंदी कै कूल ।।

The only divinities who are now popularly commemorated at the Holi Festival are Radha, Krishna, and Balarama; but its connection with them can only be of modern date. The institution of the Ban-jatra and the Ras-lila, and all the local legends that they involve is (as has been already stated) traceable to one of the Brind-ban Gosains at the beginning of the 17th century A. D. The fact, though studiously ignored by the Hindus of Mathura, is distinctly stated in the Bhakt-mala, the work which they admit to be of paramount authority on such matters. But the scenes that I have described carry back the mind of the European spectator to a far earlier period and are clearly relics, perhaps the most unchanged that exist in any part of the world, of the primitive worship of the powers of nature on the return of Spring. Such were the old English merry-makings on May Day and, still more closely paral lel, the Phallic orgies of Imperial Rome as described by Juvenal. When I was listening to the din of the village band at Bathen, it appeared to be the very scene depicted in the lines-

Plangebant aliae procer is tympana palmis,
Aut tereti tenuis tinnitus aere ciebant;
Multis raucisonos efflabant cornua bombos,
Barbaraque horribili stridebat tibia cantu.

Or, again, in the words of Catullus-

Leve tympanum remugit, cava cymbala recrepant,
Ubi sacra sancta acutis ululatibus agitant,
Quatiuntque terga tauri teneris cava digitis:

while the actors in the chaupai with dagger in hand recalled the pictures of the Corybantes or Phrygian priests of Cybele, the very persons to whom the poet refers. In Greece the Indian Holi found its equivalent in the Dionysia, when the phallus, the symbol of the fertility of nature, was borne in procession, as it now is here, and when it was thought a disgrace to remain sober. In like manner the Gosains and other actors in the Indian show are quite as much inspired in their frenzied action by their copious preliminary libations as by the excitement of the scene and the barbarous music of the drums, cymbals, and timbrels that accompany them.

References