Ratnadeep Banerji recounts the rite of passage of the making of Brajbhoomi and its resurgence after Krishna leela and rise of religious Mathura tourism.
‘In the middle of the city was a temple, larger and finer than the rest, to which neither painting nor description could do justice. The Sultan thus wrote respecting it: – “If anyone wished to construct a building equal to it, he would not be able to do so without expending a hundred million dinars, and the work would occupy two hundred years, even though the most able and experienced workmen were employed”. – Mahmud of Ghazni 1017AD, quoted in Tarikh Yamini of Al UtbiBraj turned out the cornerstone of India’s exuberant cultural tapestry.
It is not merely an edifice of Vaishnava or Krishna exaltations but the legacy of Braj gleans upon Jain and Buddhist literature, art and architecture besides bearing a tacit imprint of Greek and Islamic cultural concourse, seamlessly integrating it into its cultural cauldron. The surge of Krishna bhakti in the 14th century aroused the reverence of Braj amongst the common man. Mathura has been the axis mundi during Mahabharat, Maurya, Shunga, Shak, Gupt, Huns, Harshvardhan, Rajput, Slave dynasty of Khilji, Tughlaq, Lodi, Sher Shah, Hemu, Jat, and English rule as well.
It is this rich history of Mathura that despite the dilapidated state of Brajbhoomi, people come to see the place where Krishna Leela supposedly happened. The rich cultural history of Mathura has propelled Mathura Tourism to a new height.
Shursen Nagari’, ‘Sauryapur’, ‘Madhupuri’, ‘Madura’ are all monikers used for Mathura. Aurangzeb had changed the name of Mathura to Islamabad, while the English preferred Muttra. Religious leaders of several religions like Dhruv, Gautam Buddha, Tirthankara Parshvanath, Mahavira, Shankaracharya, Guru Nanak, Caitanya, Vallabhacharya, Salim Chisti, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Guru Ramdas, Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, all had intricate association with this exalted land. The latter half of nineteenth century saw the birth of the Arya Samaj in Mathura, where Dayananda Saraswati attained enlightenment. Vrindavan and Braj also played a critical role in the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission movement.
Brjabhoomi – Where Krishna Leela happened
Braj falls between Delhi and Agra that covers an area of 1453 square miles (2325 square km) not merely confining to the modern district of Mathura, it extends quite a distance into portions of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and another hundred and more kilometers east of Mathura across the river Yamuna. The hallowed land of Braj extends from Agra in the southeast to Banchari in the north. It is about 150km from end to end.
Using Mathura as its nucleus, from this point it extends 75 km in each direction giving the shape of a lotus. The Hindu pantheons like Vrindavana, Barsana and Mathura fall in it. However in Vedic literature and also in the Ramayana and in the Mahabharata, Braj stood synonymous with brajwasis that signified farms and farm animals as well -Brajati gacchati iti brajah. That is, ‘what moves around Braj is Braj: the cows, gopas, gopis and Gopal’.
Roots of Mathura tourism – From Mahabharata to modern time
A hundred years after Krishna left this world, Arjuna the Pandava ruler of Indraprastha brought Vajranabh, Krishna’s great-grandson, from Dwarka to Braj and appointed him the king of the land of Krishnaleela. In the aftermath of Krishnaleela , Braj remained the coveted hotbed of divination for many of India’s great poets like Kalidas, Vilvamangala, Jayadeva, Vidyapati and Chandidas among others. Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya landed here at the end of fifteenth century, and he was soon followed by Caitanya Mahaprabhu in 1515.
Between the 11th and 15th centuries, Braj suffered utter neglect with forest cover growing thick and oppressive Muslim rule over this Hindu land led to images and deities being hidden in the numerous kunds of the region. Sri Caitanya decided to resuscitate Braj -Vrindavan through political diplomacy as well as economic and cultural ways besides religious resurrection. Many images and deities were recoverd from kunds and installed in temples by Caitanya and Vallabhacharya who embarked on a rediscovery of the lore of Braj. Caitanya was pitted against Islamic rule. As his strategy, he chose a team of capable managers, six Goswamis to mitigate a deal. Three out of his six trusted followers belonged to the Mughal courts.
These Goswamis exhorted Akbar to carve out Vrindavan as a revenue entity in 1596. But even earlier, all throughout Akbar’s rule, Vrindavan had received state patronage as a hub of Hindu culture that witnessed the building of flamboyant monuments like Govind Dev and turning Yamuna as axis mundi of the Vrindavan peninsula got laid with a four-kilometre-long stretch of ghats, chattris and imposing temples of exquisite riparian architecture sprung up. All this received a fillip with the advent of visitors like Vittalnath, Narayan Bhatt, Swami Haridas, Hariram Vyas, Hit Harivansh, Gadadar Bhatt espousing the cause of Braj and Vrindavan.
Revival of tales of Kirshan Leela
With the munificience and avid cooperation of the Mughal and Rajput courts, literature, philosophy, rituals, arts, crafts, music and drama flourished aplomb. The six Goswamis of Caitanya designated the famous triumvirate of Narrothamdas Thakur, Shyamanad Prabhu and Srinivas Acharya as custodians of Braj. These three denizens set out errands to disseminate Vrindavan’s literary, religious, philosophical and artistic creations of the sixteenth century to far places like Assam, Manipur, Bengal, Orissa, Gujrat and even to Dera Ghazikhan in the north-western frontier provinces.
But in a quirk of fate, the latter half of the seventeenth century and the first-half of the eighteenth century witnessed mass plunder and destruction in Braj alongside saviours and patrons like the royal rulers of Jaipur and Gwalior and the nobles of Bengal came to the rescue. It is believed that 16000 ragas were crafted in Braj. Bhajans of Surdas, Meera Bai, Tulsidas and Raskhan are still in vogue in Braj. Swami Haridas lived his lifetime here, thronged by kings sitting at his doorstep for hours. This was the era of revival of tales of Krishna Leela.
The singing of Baiiju Bawra, Tansen, Nayak Bakshu of dhrupad-dhamar reflected a novelty in itself. Biharilal Mathur, Amir Khusro, Bhushan, Ghananand stood out in poetry. Amir Khusro spoke and composed poetry in Braj Bhasha, the prevalent dialect of the region. His ‘chhaap tilak sab chheni’ is still a popular devotional song. Compositions like Surdas’ ‘main naahin makhan khaayo’ have lent its epigramatic candour. Even today Braj Bhasha is splurged across in Hindustani music and popular Hindi film songs to evoke subtleties.
More about Brajbhoomi, Krishna Leela in Mathura, and reason behind such a rising importance of Mathura Tourism for Hindu, in the next article.
