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 a

MARCH 1, 1872.]

67

SKETCHES OF MATHURA.

as the tutelary divinity at all three hill places.

Puránas.

A similar displacement would seem to have

sprung up in the neighbourhood of the different

occurred at another locality in yet earlier times; for one of the twelve sacred woods, mentioned even in the Bhāgavat Purána, viz., Bhadrab an betrays, in the name, its original dedication to Mahādeva, but now acknowledges the presence of no god but Krishna. Again, Bhangänw, on the bank of the Jamunā, was clearly so called from Bhava, one of the eight manifestations of Shiva ; but the name is now generally modified to Bhay gååw, 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 and temple on the water's edge, called Nand-ghat, dating only from last century, are the founda tion and support of the locallegend. The village names of Bhadāwal and Bisambhara may also be quoted as shewing that Mahādeva was once a more popular divinity in the country than at present. Of a still more obsolete cultus, viz.

shrines bearing the same name though perhaps in a slightly modified form. Thus the khadira

snake-worship, faint indications may be detected in a few local names and customs. Thus at Jait, on the high-road to Delhi, an ancient five-headed Nāga, carved in stone, rises beside a small tank in the centre of a low plain, to the height of some four feet above the surface of the ground, while its tail is supposed to reach away to the Kāli mardan Ghāt at Brinda-ban, a distance of 8 miles.

In the course of time small villages

ban, or acacia grove, gives its name to the village of Kh a i r a, and the anjan-pokhar, on whose green bank Krishna pencilled his lady's eyebrows with anjan, gives its name to the village of Ajn ok h, occasionally written at greater

length Aj no k h a ri. Similarly when Krish na's home was fixed at N a n d g a fi w and Rä dhá's at B a r s à n a, 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

R à d ha-R am a n, and the

village that grew up under its shelter was called San k et, that is, the place of rendez vous. Thus we may readily fall in with Hin du prejudices, and admit that many of the names on the map are etymologically

con

nected 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 has had any existence for a longer period than at the most 300 years. The really old local names are almost all derived

from the 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’;

A slight excavation at the base of the figure has, for a few years at least, dispelled the local super stition. So again at the village of Paigailw, a grove and lake called respectively Pai-ban and Pai-ban-kund, are the scene of an annual fair known as the Nāg-mela. The name is probably derived from the large offerings of milk (payas) with which it is usual to propitiate the serpent

called fom mat, ‘a milk pail’; and D ad hi g a w, (contracted into D a h g a fi w,) in the Kosi Pargana, from dadhi, ‘curds.” Thus too Math ur à is probably connected with the

god. It was towards the close of the 16th century

first instance means ‘a herd' from the root vraj,

A.D., under the influence of the celebrated Ben gali Gosains at Brind a ban that the Vaishnava

cultus was first developed in its present form, and it is not improbable that they were the authors of the Brahma Vaivarta Purána,” the

Gob a r d h a n, “a rearer of kine’; M at is so

Sanskrit root math

to churn,' the churn form

ing a prominent feature in all poetical descrip tions of the local scenery ; and “ Braj' in the ‘to go,' in allusion to the constant moves of nomadic tribes. In many cases a false analogy has suggested a legendary derivation, thus all native scholars see in M at hur à an allusion to Madhunathan a title of Krishna. Again the

in the circuit of Braj received a distinctive

word Bath an is still current in some parts of India to designate a pasture-ground, and in that sense has given a name to a very extensive

name, in addition to the some seven or eight spots which alone are mentioned in the earlier

liar one thereabouts, a legend has been invented

recognised authority for all the modern local legends. It was then that every lake and grove

admit;
 * The Brahma Vairarta Purána is, as all criticsbelieved


 * .essentially modern composition. Prof. Wilson


 * to have emanated from the sect of Wallabhácháris, or
 * ains of Gokul, about four centuries ago. In so writing

parish in Kos i ; but as the term is not a fami he was probably unaware of the exact date of the Mathurá ropaganda. #. popular Hindi authority for Rādhā's }. and Loves is the Braj Bilās, a poem written by one

Brajbāsi Däs in the year 1743, A.D.

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