Lietit.-Colonel Tod on the Religious Establishments of' Meivar. 317 



NonIta, or NoNANDA, is the juvenile Kaniya, who has his altar separate, 

 though close to Nat'h-ji. He is also styled Bala-mokund, ' the blessed 

 child,' and is depicted as an infant with a pera * or comfit ball in his hand. 

 This image, which was one of the psnates of a former age, and which, 

 since the destruction of the shrines ofCuisHNA by the Islamites, had lain in 

 the Yamuna, attached itself to the sacerdotal zone (zumi) of the high 

 priest Balba, while he was performing his ablutions, who, carrying it 

 home, placed it in a niche of the temple and worshipped it : and Nonanda 

 yet receives tlie peculiar homage of the high-priest (a lineal descendant of 

 Balba) and his family as their household divinity. Of the second image, 

 Mat'hura Nat'h, there is no particular mention ; it was at one time at 

 Kamnorh in Mewar, but is now at Kotah. 



It has been stated that each of the seven sons of the high- priest had an 

 image of the god intrusted to him. These sons had all appellations appertain- 

 ing to the deity ; and Balcrishna, the third son, had Dwar-ca Nat'h made 

 over to his keejiing. This statue, now at Kankerowli in Mewar, is asserted 

 to be tlie identical image which received the adoration of Raja Umrika, a 

 prince of the solar race who lived in the Satya Yuga, or silver age. The 

 ' god of the mount' (Gird'han Nath) revealed himself in a dream to his 

 high-priest, and told him of the domicile of this his representative at 

 Kanouj. Thither Balba repaired, and having obtained it from the Brahman, 

 appointed Dajiodur-das Kiietri to officiate at his altar, on whose death it 

 reverted to Balba. This image like the rest is only a duplicate of the 

 divinity, the original being in the Suurashtra peninsula. 



The fourth statue, that of Gokul-Nat'h, or Gokul Chandrama (/. e. the 

 moon of Gokul), had an equally mysterious origin, having been discovered 

 in a deep ravine on the banks of the river ; Balba assigned it to liis brother- 

 in-law. Gokul is an island on the Jumna, a few miles below Mat'hura, 

 and celebrated in the early history of the pastoral divinity. The possession 

 of this image by Jdija-pur does not deprive the little island of its honours as 

 a place of pilgrimage ; for the ' god of Gokul' has an altar on the original 

 site, and his rites are performed by an aged priestess, who disowns the 

 jurisdiction of the high-priest of Nat'hdwara, both in the spiritual and 

 temporal concerns of her shrine; and w!io, to the no small scandal of all 



♦ The ■pera of Mat'hura can only be made from the waters of the Yamuna, from whence 

 it is yet conveyed to Nonanda at Nat'hdwara, and with curds forms his evening repast 



