Mathura A District Memoir Chapter-8

BRINDA-BAN AND THE VAISHNAVA REFORMERS
SOME six miles above Mathura is a point where the right bank of the Jamuna assumes the appearance of a peninsula, owing to the eccentricity of the stream, which first makes an abrupt turn to the north and then as sudden a return upon its accustomed southern course. Here, washed on three of its sides by the sacred flood, stands the town of Brinda-ban, at the present day a rich and prosperous municipality, and for several centuries past one of the most holy places of the Hindus. A little higher up the stream a similar promontory occurs, and in both cases the curious formation is traditionally ascribed to the resentment of Baladeva. He, it is said, forgetful one day of his habitual reserve, and emulous of his younger brother’s popular graces, led out the Gopis for a dance upon the sands. But he performed his part so badly, that the Jamuna could not forbear from taunting him with his failure and recom mending him never again to exhibit so clumsy an imitation of Krishna’s agile movements. The stalwart god was much vexed at this criticism and, taking up the heavy plough which he had but that moment laid aside, he drew with it so deep a furrow from the shore that the unfortunate river, perforce, fell into it, was drawn helplessly away and has never since been able to recover its original channel.
Such is the local rendering of the legend; but in the Puranas and other early Sanskrit authorities the story is differently told, in this wise; that as Balarama was roaming through the woods of Brinda-ban, he found concealed in the cleft of a kadamb tree some spirituous liquor, which he at once con sumed with his usual avidity. Heated by intoxication he longed, above all things, for a bathe in the river, and seeing the Jamuna at some little distance, he shouted for it to come near. The stream, however, remained deaf to his summons; whereupon the infuriated god took up his ploughshare and breaking down the bank drew the water into a new channel and forced it to follow wherever he led. In the Bhagavata it is added that the Jamuna is still to be seen following the course along which she was thus dragged. Professor Wilson, in his edition of the Vishnu Purana, says, “The legend probably alludes to the construction of canals from the Jamuna for the purpose of irrigation; and the works of the Muhammadans in this way, which are well known, were no doubt proceded by similar canals dug by the order of Hindu princes." Upon this suggestion it may be remarked, first, that in Upper India, with the sole excep tion of the canal constructed by Firoz Shah (1351-1388 A.D.) for the supply of the city of Hisar, no irrigation works of any extent are known ever to have been executed either by Hindus or Muhammadans certainly there are no traces of any such operations in the neighbourhood of Brinda-ban; and secondly, both legends represent the Jamuna itself as diverted from its straight course into s single winding channel, not as divided into a multiplicity of streams. Hence it may more reasonably be inferred that the still existing involution of the river is the sole foundation for the myth.
The high road from Mathura to Brinda-ban passes through two villages, Jay-sinh-pur and Ahalya-ganj, and about half way crosses a deep ravine by a bridge that boars the following inscription:-Sri. Pul banwaya Maharaj Des mukh Bala-bai Sahib beti Maharaj Madho Ji Saindhiya Bahadur Ki ne marfat Khazanchi Manik Chand ki, Jisukh karkun, gumashta Mahtab Rae ne sambat 1890, mahina asarh badi 10 guruvasare. Close by is a masonry tank, quite recently completed, which also has a commemorative inscription as follows: Talab banwaya Lala Kishan Lal beta Fakir Chand Sahukar, jat Dhusar, Rahnewala Dilli ke ne, sambat 1929 mutabik san 1872 Isvi. That the bridge should have been built by a daughter of the Maharaja of Gwaliar and the tank constructed by a banker of Delhi, both strangers to the locality, is an example of the benefits which the district enjoys from its reputation for sanctity. As the road between the two towns is always thronged with pilgrims, the number of these costly votive offerings is sure to be largely increased in course of time; but at present the country on either side has rather a waste and desolate appearance, with fewer gardens and houses than would be expected on a thoroughfare connecting two places of such popular resort. An, explanation is afforded by the fact that the present road is of quite recent construction. Its predecessor kept much closer to the Jamuna lying just along the khadar lands-which in the rains form part of the river bed-and then among the ravines, where it was periodically destroyed by the rush of water from the land. This is now almost entirely disused; but for the first two miles out of Brindaban its course is marked by lines of trees and several works of considerable magnitude. The first is a large garden more than 4O bighas in extent, surrounded by a masonry wall and supplied with water from a distance by long aqueducts. In its centre is a stone temple of some size, and among the trees, with which the grounds are ever-crowded, some venerable specimens of the khirni form an imposing avenue. The garden bears the name of Kushal, a wealthy Seth from Gujarat, at whose expense it was constructed, and who also founded one of the largest temples in the city of Mathura. A little beyond, on the opposite side of the way, in a piece of waste ground, which was once an orchard, is a large and handsome bauli of red sand-stone, with a flight of 57 steps leading down to the level of the water. This was the gift of Ahalya Bai, the celebrated Mahratta Queen of Indor, who died in 1795. It is still in perfect preservation, but quite unused. Further on, in the hamlet of Akrur, on the verge of a cliff overlooking a wide expanse of alluvial land, is the temple of Bhat-rond, a solitary tower containing an image of Bihari Ji. In front of it is a forlorn little court-yard with walls and entrance gateway all crumbling into ruin. Opposite is a large garden of the Seth’s, and on the roadway that runs between, a fair, called the Bhat-mela, is held on the full moon of Kartik; when sweetmeats are scrambled among the crowd by the visitors of higher rank, seated on the top of the gate. The word Bhat-rond is always popularly connected with the incident in Krishna’s life which the mela commemorates-how that he and his brother Balaram one day, having forgotten to supply themselves with provisions before leaving home, had to borrow a meal of rice(bhat) from some Brahmans’ wives-but the true etymology (though an orthodox Hindu would regard the suggestion as heretical) refers, like most of the local names in the neighbourhood, merely to physi cal phenomena, and Bhat-rond may be translated ‘ tide-wall,’ or ‘ break-water.’
Similarly, the word Brinda-ban is derived from an obvious physical feature, and when first attached to the spot signified no more than the ‘tulsi grove;’ brinda and tulsi being synonymous terms, used indifferently to denote the sacred aromatic herb known to botanists as Ocymum sanctum. But this explanation is far too simple to find favour with the more modern and extravagant school of Vaishnava sectaries; and in the Brahma Vaivarta Purina, a mythical per sonage has been invented bearing the name of Vrinda. According to that spurious composition (Brah. Vai, v. iv. 2) the deified Radha, though inhabit ing the Paradise of Goloka, was not exempt from human passions, and in a fit of jealousy condemned a Gopa by name Sridama to descend upon earth in the form of the demon Sankhachura. He, in retaliation, sentenced her to become a nymph of Brinda-ban and there accordingly she was born, being, as was supposed, the daughter of Kedara, but in reality the divine mistress of Krishna: and it was simply his love for her which induced the god to leave his solitary throne in heaven and become incarnate. Hence in the following list of Radha’s titles, as given by the same authority (Brah. Vai., v. iv. 17), there are three which refer to her predilection for Brinda-ban:

Radha Rasesvari, Rasavasini, Rasikesvari,
Krishna-pranadhika, Krishna-priya, Krishna-swarupini
Krishna, Vrindavani, Vrinda, Vrindavana-vinodini,
Chandavati, Chandra-kanta, Sata-chandra-nibhanana,
Krishna-vamanga-sambhuta, Paramananda-rupini.

In the Padma Purana, Radha’s incarnation is explained in somewhat differ ent fashion; that Vishnu being enamoured of Vrinda, the wife of Jalandhara, the gods, in their desire to cure him of his guilty passion, begged of Lakshmi the gift of certain seeds. These, when sown, came up as the tulsi, malati and dhatri plants, which assumed female forms of such beauty that Vishnu on seeing them lost all regard for the former object of his affections.
There is no reason to suppose that Brinda-ban was ever the seat of any large Buddhist establishment; and though from the very earliest period of Brah manical history it has enjoyed high repute as a sacred place of pilgrimage, it to probable that for many centuries it was merely a wild uninhabited jungle, a description still applicable to Bhandir-ban, on the opposite side of the river, a spot of equal celebrity in Sanskrit literature. Its most ancient temples, four in number, take us back only to the reign of our own Queen Elizabeth; the stately courts that adorn the river bank and attest the wealth and magnificence of the Bharat-pur Rajas, date only from the middle of last century; while the space now occupied by a series of the largest and most magnificent shrines ever erected in Upper India was, fifty years ago, an unclaimed belt of wood-land and pasture-ground for cattle. Now that communication has been established with the remotest parts of India, every year sees some splendid addition made to the artistic treasures of the town; as wealthy devotees recognize in the stability and tolerance of British rule an assurance that their pious donations will be completed in peace and remain undisturbed in perpetuity.
When Father Tieffenthaler visited Brinda-ban, in 1754, he noticed only one long street, but states that this was adorned with handsome, not to say magnificent, buildings of beautifully carved stone, which had been erected by different Hindu Rajas and nobles, either for mere display, or as occasional residences, or as embellishments that would be acceptable to the local divinity. The absurdity of people coming from long distances merely for the sake of dying on holy ground, all among the monkeys-which he describes as a most intolerable nuisance-together with the frantic idolatry that he saw rampant all around, and the grotesque resemblance of the Bairagis to the hermits and ascetics of the ear lier ages of Christianity, seem to have given the worthy missionary such a shock that his remarks on the buildings are singularly vague and indiscriminating. Mons. Victor Jacquemont’ who passed through Brindle-ban in the cold weather of 1829-3O, has left rather a fuller description. He says, “This is a very ancient city, and I should say of more importance even than Mathura. It is considered one of the most sacred of all among the Hindus, an advantage which Mathura also possesses, but in a less degree. Its temples are visited by multitudes of pilgrims, who perform their ablutions in the river at the differ ent ghats, which are very fine. All the buildings are constructed of red sand-stone, of a closer grain and of a lighter and less disagreeable colour than that used at Agra: it comes from the neighbourhood of Jaypur, a distance of 200 miles. Two of these temples have the pyramidal form peculiar to the early Hindu style, but without the little turrets which in the similar buildings at Benares seem to spring out of the main tower that determines the shape of the edifice. They have a better effect, from being more simple, but are half in ruins." (The temples that he means are Madan Mohan and Jugal Kishor). "A larger and more ancient ruin is that of a temple of unusual form. The interior of the nave is like that of a Gothic church; though a village church only, so far as size goes. A quantity of grotesque sculpture is pendent from the dome, and might be taken for pieces of turned wood. (read note 3) An immense number of bells, large and small, are carved in relief on the supporting pillars and on the walls, worked in the same stiff and ungainly style. Many of the independent Rajas of the west, and some of their ministers (who have robbed them well no doubt) are now building at Brinda-ban in a different style, which, though less original, is in better taste, and are indulging in the costly ornamentation of pierced stone tracery. Next to Benares, Brinda-ban is the largest purely Hindu city that I have seen. I could not discover in it a single mosque. Its suburbs are thickly planted with fine trees, which appear from a distance like an island of verdure in the sandy plain." (These are the large gardens beyond the tem ple of Madan Mohan, on the old Delhi road.) “The Doab, which can be seen from the top of the temples, stretching away on the opposite side of the Jamuna, is still barer than the country on the right bank."
At the present time there are within the limits of the municipality about a thousand including, of course, many which, strictly speaking, are mere ly private chapels, and thirty-two ghats constructed by different princely bane factors. The tanks of reputed sanctity are only two in number. The first is the Brahm Kund at the back of the Seth’s temple; it is now in a very ruinous condition, and the stone kiosques at its four corners have in part fallen, in part been occupied by vagrants, who have closed up the arches with mud walls and converted them into dwelling-places. I had began to effect a clearance and make arrangements for their complete repair when my transfer took place and put an immediate stop to this and all similar improvements. The other, called Govind Kund, is in an out-of-the-way spot near the Mathura road. Hitherto it had been little more than a natural pond, but has lately been enclosed on all four sides with masonry walls and flights of steps, at a cost of Rs. 30,000, by Chaudharani Kali Sundari from Rajshahi in Bengal. To these may be added, as a third, a masonry tank in what is called the Kewar-ban. This is a grove of pipal, gular, and kadamb trees which stands a little off the Mathura road near the turn to the Madan Mohan temple: It is a halting-place in the Banjatra, and the name is popularly said to be a corruption of kin vari, ‘ who lit it ? With reference to the forest conflagration, or davanal, of which the traditional scene is more commonly laid at Bhadra-ban, on the opposite bank of the river. There is a small temple of Davanal Bihari, with a cloistered court-yard for the reception of pilgrims. The Gosain is a Nimbarak. A more likely derivation for the name would be the Sanskrit word kaivalya, meaning final beatitude. Adjoining the ban is a large walled garden, belonging to the Tehri Raja, which has long been abandoned on account of the badness of the water. The peacocks and monkeys, with-which the town abounds, enjoy the benefit of special endowments bequeathed by deceased Rajas of Kota and Bharat-pur. There are also some fifty ckhattras, or dole-houses, for the distri bution of alms to indigent humanity, and extraordinary donations are not unfre quently made by royal and distinguished visitors. Thus the Raja of Datia, a few years ago, made an offering to every single shrine and every single Brahman that was found in the city. The whole population amounts to 21,000, of which the Brahmans, Bairagis and Vaishnavas together make up about one half. In the time of the emperors, the Muhammadan made a futile attempt to abolish the ancient name, Brinda-ban, and in its stead substitute that of Muminabad; but now, more wisely, they leave the place to its own Hindu name and devices and keep themselves as clear of it as possible. Thus, besides an occasional official, there are in Brinda-ban no followers of the prophet beyond only some fifty fami lies, who live close together in its outskirts and are all of the humblest order, such as oilmen, lime-burners and the like. They have not a single public mosque nor even a Karbala in which to deposit the tombs of Hasan and Husain on the feast of the Muharram, but have to bring them into Mathura to be interred.
It is still customary to consider the religion of the Hindus as a compact system, which has existed continuously and without any material change ever since the remote and almost pre-historic period when it finally abandoned the comparatively simple form of worship inculcated by the ritual of the Vedas. The real facts, however, are far different. So far as it is possible to compare natural with revealed religion, the course of Hinduism and Christianity has been identical in character; both were subjected to a violent disruption, which occurred in the two quarters of the globe nearly simultaneously, and which is still attested by the multitude of uncouth fragments into which the ancient edifice was disintegrated as it fell. In the west, the revival of ancient litera ture and the study of forgotten systems of philosophy stimulated enquiry into the validity of those theological conclusions which previously had been unhesi­tatingly accepted-from ignorance that any counter-theory could be honestly maintained by thinking men. Similarly, in the east, the Muhammadan inva sion and the consequent contact with new races and new modes of thought brought home to the Indian moralist that his old basis of faith was too narrow; that the division of the human species into the four Manava castes and an outer world of barbarians was too much at variance with facts to be accepted as satis factory, and that the ancient inspired oracles, if rightly interpreted, must dis close some means of salvation applicable to all men alike, without respect to colour or nationality. The professed object of the Reformers was the same in Asia as in Europe-to discover the real purpose for which the second Person of the Trinity became incarnate; to disencumber the truth, as He had revealed it, from the accretions of later superstition; to abolish the extravagant preten sions of a dominant class and to restore a simpler and more severely intellec tual form of public worship. (read note 4) In Upper India the tyranny of the Muhamma dans was too tangible a fact to allow of the hope, or even the wish, that the con querors and conquered could ever coalesce in one common faith: but in the Dakhin and the remote regions of Eastern Bengal, to which the sword of Islam scarcely extended, and where no inveterate antipathy had been created, the appeared less improbable. Accordingly, it was in those parts of India that the great teachers of the reformed Vaishnava creed first meditated and reduced to system those doctrines, which it was the one object of all their later life to promulgate throughout Hindustan. It was their ambition to elabo rate so scheme so broad and yet so orthodox that it might satisfy the require ments of the Hindu and yet not exclude the Muhammadan, who was to be ad mitted on equal terms into the new fraternity; all mankind becoming one great family and every caste distinction being utterly abolished.
Hence it is by no means correct to assert of modern Hinduism that it is essentially a non-proselytizing religion; accidentally it has become so, but only from concession to the prejudices of the outside world and in direct opposition to the tenets of its founders. Their initial success was necessarily due to their intense zeal in proselytizing, and was marvellously rapid. At the present day their followers constitute the more influential, and it may be even numerically the larger half of the Hindu population: but precisely as in Europe so in India no two men of the reformed sects, however immaterial their doctrinal differences, can be induced to amalgamate; each forms a new caste more bigoted and exclusive than any of those which it was intended to supersede, while the founder has become a deified character, for whom it is necessary to erect a new niche in the very Pantheon he had laboured to destroy. The only point upon which all the Vaishnavas sects theoretically agree is the rever ence with which they profess to regard the Bhagavad Gita as the authoritative exposition of their creed. In practice their studies-if they study at all-are direct ed exclusively to much more modern compositions, coached in their own verna cular, the Braj Bhasha. Of these the work held in highest repute by all the Brinda-ban sects is the Bhakt-mala, or Legends of the Saints, written by Nabha Ji in the reign of Akbar or Jahangir. Its very first couplet is a compendium of the theory upon which the whole Vaishnava reform was based:
Bkakt-bhakti-Bhagavant-guru, chatura nam, vapu ek: which declares that there is a divinity in every true believer, whether learned or unlearned, and irrespective of all caste distinctions. Thus the religious teachers that it celebrates are represented, not as rival disputants-which their descendants have become-but as all animated by one faith, which varied only in expression; and as all fellow-workers in a common cause, viz., the moral and spiritual elevation of their countrymen. Nor can it be denied that the writing of many of the actual leaders of the movement are instinct with a spirit of asceticism and detachment from the world and a sincere piety, which are very different from the ordinary outcome of Hinduism. But in no case did this catholic simplicity last for more than a single generation. The great teacher had no sooner passed away than his very first successor hedged round his little band of followers with new caste restrictions, formulated a series of narrow dogmas out of what had been intended as comprehensive exhortations to holiness and good works; and substituted for an interior devotion and mystical love-which were at least pure in intent, though perhaps scarcely attainable in practice by ordinary humanity-an extravagant system of outward worship with all the sensual accompaniments of gross and material passion.
The Bhakt-mala, though an infallible oracle, is an exceedingly obscure one, and requires a practised hierophant for its interpretation. It gives no legend at length, but consists throughout of a series of the briefest allusions to legends, which are supposed to be already well-known. Without some such previous knowledge the poem is absolutely unintelligible. Its concise notices have therefore been expanded into more complete lives by different modern writers, both in Hindi and Sanskrit. One of these paraphrases is entitled the Bhakt Sindhu, and the author, by name Lakshman, is said to have taken great pains to verify his facts. But though his success may satisfy the Hindu mind, which is constitutionally tolerant of chronological inaccuracy, he falls very far below the requirements of European criticism. His work is however useful, since it gives a number of floating traditions, which could otherwise be gathered only from oral communications with the Gosains of the different sects, who, as a rule, are very averse to speak on such matters with outsiders.
The four main divisions, or Sampradayas, as they are called, of the reformed Vaishnavas are the Sri Vaishnava, the Nimbarak Vaishnava, the Madhva Vaishnava, and the Vishnu Swami. The last sect is now virtually extinct; for though the name is occasionally retained, their doctrines were entirely re-modelled in the sixteenth century by the famous Gokul Gosain Vallabhacharya, after whom his adherents are ordinarily styled either Vallabhacharyas or Gokulastha Gosains. Their history and tenets will find more appropriate place in connection with the town of Gokul, which is still their headquarters