SHRINATHJI AT NATHDWARA

The urge to visit Nathdwara for Shrinathji's darshan was irresistible.

It had been five years since we went there last. It was time to go again.

Shrinathji is the central presiding deity of the Vaishnava sect and the 'Ishta-Devata' or personal deity of the community of Suryadwaj brahmins to which our family belongs. The idol of Shrinathji is of seven year old Lord Krishna depicting the act of lifting a hill with his left hand to protect his home town of Govardhan from a deluge of rain.

Legend has it that in 1409, a stone appeared on Govardhan hill near Mathura which people thought was a snake deity as it happened to be on the festival of 'naag-panchmi'. Some years later, the stone emerged further out of the hill revealing a human head. When Vallabhacharya, a saint, philosopher and devotee of Lord Krishna, came to know of it, he built a temple in Govardhan to instal the idol which is believed to have self-manifested from stone.

Folklore has a cute story as told by Akhila's mother to her. A little girl named Naro used to take out the family's cow to Govardhan hill every day. Naro's father noticed that on return, the cow's udders were dry. On questioning, Naro said that milk used to flow out of the cow at a particular spot on the hill. The father accompanied her the next day and was amazed to see that happen. He along with some relatives started digging the spot where they believed they heard a child's voice. Finally, the idol emerged.

History records that the idol was shifted from Govardhan to Mathura and then Agra in 1672 to safeguard it from destruction by Aurangzeb. It was then decided to go further south and a special chariot without any metal parts was constructed for the transportation. At a village called Sihad in Mewar, the chariot got stuck in the mud. The Rana of Mewar volunteered to protect the idol and ordered a haveli to be built for housing it. And that is how Nathdwara came into being. Incidentally, the chariot is on display at the temple for viewing.

My first darshan of Shrinathji was in 1949 when Pitaji moved to Udaipur as a High Court Judge on formation of the state of Rajasthan. During '49-'50, we visited Nathdwara for all prominent festivals like Janmashtami, Diwali and Holi. I vividly recall being awestruck at seeing the ceiling-high mound of rice on Govardhan Puja or Annakoot which is celebrated the day after Diwali. 

Another feature on festivals is the playing of drums, trumpet and clarinet at the entrance of the temple. Recorded bhajans of Surdas sung in haveli music style by Pandit Jasraj accompanied by the deep, unique sound of pakhawaj (a type of drum), are broadcast over loudspeakers to create a reverential atmosphere for devotees awaiting darshan. 

Shrinathji's idol is treated exactly as a mother would treat her child. In fact, in another room in the temple, there is a palna (cradle) with a tiny idol of Krishna as a knee-crawling child and the pujaris rock the palna and keep Krishna entertained with tops and other toys. Daily rituals like bathing, dressing, feeding and siesta are followed religiously and Shrinathji adorned with jewels and silk vastras (dresses) with intricate embroidery and designs. The shrine is opened eight times for devotees to have a jhanki or viewing of the idol. Once a vastra is worn, it is not repeated and given away to devotees.

On the road from Udaipur to Kishangarh, there are four temples which are regarded as a mini 'char dham' by our community. Shrinathji is, of course, the most famous of them. 20 kms north of Nathdwara is a town called Kankroli which hosts the Dwarkadhish temple perched on a hill with a beautiful view of Rajsamand lake. The temple was completed in 1676 and houses the idol of Dwarkadhish, a swaroop of Lord Krishna. This idol too was originally in Gokul, near Mathura, and shifted first to Ahmedabad and then to Kankroli to prevent Aurangzeb from capturing or destroying it. Rituals followed for Dwarkadhishji are same as for Shrinathji.

Another 44 kms up towards Kishengarh, just off the highway, is the third leg of the char dham, Charbhuja temple, so-called because the Lord Krishna idol here has four hands. The temple was completed in 1444.

Turning back towards Udaipur and after passing Kankroli and Nathdwara, we come to the final leg of our char dham. Eklingji temple, 22 kms short of Udaipur, is devoted to Lord Shiva. This is the oldest temple of the four dating back to 734 AD. The temple has undergone its share of ravaging and reconstruction and the present idol, Eklingji (Shiva) was installed in late 15th century. The chief patron of the temple is the Maharana of Mewar and Akhila and I have been witness to the Maharana performing the aarti himself on one of our visits.

After leaving Udaipur in 1951, I have visited Nathdwara for Shrinathji darshan many times. Mummy took Akhila and me there soon after our wedding. Mummy's cousin, Santosh Mamaji was the Chief Executive Officer of the temple then. I mentioned to him that people seemed to push around needlessly while doing darshan even when there was not much crowd and asked him if he could stop it. He explained to me that it was a religious custom to push from side to side to create a sense of being amidst the waves of Yamuna river and he would not do anything about it.

A couple of years later, Ruchir's 'mundan' ceremony was performed in the courtyard of the temple.  Two and a half year old Ruchir was resisting and showing his displeasure at the barber shaving his head. However, he was held down while the barber did his job. On completion, the barber happily showed him a mirror but that made Ruchir more angry and he caught the barber by his hair and gave him two tight slaps!

In 2003, Akhila and I took Mummy along with us to Nathdwara. That was Mummy's final trip to the temple. 

On some of those trips, we completed the char dham also. 

And so, Akhila and I made a two day visit to Nathdwara end-September. We stayed at the Radisson hotel commissioned last year. The hotel is just 2 kms from the temple and its staff organised our darshans smoothly and efficiently. Our room also had a fine view of The Statue of Belief or Vishwas Swaroopam, a statue of Lord Shiva, also completed last year and said to be the tallest statue of Shiva in the world. It is 369 feet tall and can be seen from as far as 20 kms. At 8 every night, there is a light show which we could see from our room terrace.

Urge satisfied and mission achieved, we drove back to Jaipur after Eklingji darshan as well.

P.S. For anyone visiting Nathdwara, we highly recommend the tea served in the string of stalls just outside the temple. The tea is made in front of you in a large 'patila' (vessel) with the chaiwala grinding chunks of ginger into a paste and adding it with heaps of fresh pudina leaves to the boiling water, milk and tea leaves. Sugar is added and the tea served in tiny kulhars. The taste is unique and exquisite.