330 
F. S. Growse — The Tirthas of Vrmdd-vana and Golmla. [No. 4, 
Mamatum-ramana-sthdmm, Ndrada-sth&nmi eva clui, 
Putand-patana stlidnam, Tnnavarttdkhya pdtanam, 
Nanda-liarmyam, Nanda-geham , Ghd(am Ramana-samjnakam, 
Mathurdndlhobha-kxhetram puny am pdpa-praudsanam, 
Janma-sthanam iu Sheshasya, jananam Yogamdyaya. 
Some little distance outside the town, a small bridge carries the Mathu- 
ra road ac oss a ravine called Piitan.i khar, the Putana-patana-sthanam of 
the above lines. It is a mile or more in length, reaching down to the bank 
of the Jamuna, and as the name denotes, is supposed to havo been caused by 
the passage of Pdtana’s giant body. Similarly in Mathura, when Kansa’s 
corse was dragged down to the Visrant Ghat, it made a deep channel in the 
ground like a torrent in flood, as described in the Vishnu Purina : 
Gauravendti mahatd parikhd. tena kruhyatd 
Kritd Kansasya dehena, vegeneva mahdtnbhasah. 
This is still known as the Kans Khar. It has been arched over, and 
like the Fleet Ditch in London, forms now the main sewer of the city, dis- 
charging itself into the river at the very spot where Brahmans most delight 
to bathe. The remainder of the twenty-one tirthas have either been already 
noticed in the course ol this sketch, or commemorate such well-known inci- 
dents in Krishna’s childhood that any further explanation is unnecessary. 
On the high road to Sa’dabad, some six miles beyond Maha-ban, is the 
modern tirtha of Baladeva Ji. The temple, from which the town derives its 
name, is of considerable celebrity and well-endowed, but neither handsome 
nor well kept. It includes within its precincts several cloistered quadran- 
gles, where accommodation is provided for pilgrims and the resident priests 
The actual temple stands at the back of one of the inner courts, and on each 
of its three disengaged sides has an arcade of three arches with broad 
flanking piers. On each of these three sides a door gives access to the cella, 
which is surmounted by a squat pyramidal tower. Beside the principal 
figure, Baladeva, who is generally very richly dressed and bedizened, it con- 
tains another life-sized statue supposed to represent his spouse, lievati. 
Apparently she was an after-thought, being put away in a corner off the 
dais. In an adjoining court is shewn the small vaulted chamber, which is 
said to have been the original shrine before the present more pretentious 
edifice was erected by a Delhi Seth, named Syam Das, some time in the last 
century. Outside the temple is a brick tank about eighty yards square, 
called variously Kshir-Sagar, ‘ the sea of milk,’ or Kshir-kund, or Balbhadra- 
kun<j. It is in rather a dilapidated condition, and the surface of the water 
is always covered with a repulsive thick green scum, which, however, does not 
deter the pilgrims either from bathing or drinking. In this tank it is said 
that about the year 1550 was accidentally discovered the image of Baladeva 
which has ever since been regarded as the local divinity. The original 
