38 
The Country of Braj. 
[No. 1, 
from afar, leads down to the water’s edge. The most pleasing 
architectural works in the district are the large masonry tanks; 
these are very numerous and all display excellent taste in design 
and skill in execution. The temples, though in some instances of 
considerable size, are all, excepting those in the three large towns, 
utterly devoid of artistic merit. 
It is only in a very loose and ideal sense that Mathura can be 
regarded as the centre of the circle ; since it is but 10 miles distant 
from the most southern point, Baldeva, and some 30 from the nor¬ 
thern extremity, Kotban. This fact gives colour to a theory, which 
Elliot mentions under the word 1 chaurasi,’ and supports by reference 
to what he calls a trite Hindi couplet, that in earlier times the coun¬ 
try of Braj was of much wider extent. The boundaries therein speci¬ 
fied are Bar, Son, and the village of Surasen, which latter is taken to 
mean Batesar* 4 on the Jamuna below Agra, which is still a place 
of pilgrimage and scene of a large fair on the full moon of Kartik. 
But it is certain that all the recognized sacred sites are included 
within the modern limits of the parikrama; and whatever may be 
the authority of the lines quoted, they are not familiar in the pre¬ 
sent day to any of the local pandits ; nor can they be of any great 
antiquity, since they contain the Persian word ‘ hadd .’ In the 
Varaha Purana, the Mathura-Mandal is described as 20 yojanas in 
extent. Taking the yojana as 7 miles, and the kos as If- mile, 
20 yojanas would be about equal to 84 kos. It is said that the 
greater perambulation is occasionally performed by the more devout 
and occupies a period of two months, while the smaller circuit is 
completed in half that time. But the fact in itself is questionable, 
and in any case it is only the shorter route, now to be described, 
which can claim attention as a popular devotion. 
The perambulation commences in Bhadon (August—September,) 
on account of the anniversary of Krishna’s birth being celebrated 
in that month. The number of sacred places,! woods, groves, ponds, 
wells, hills, and temples—all to be visited in fixed order is very 
considerable ; but the 12 Bans or woods, and 24 groves or Upabans, 
* It might mean the town of Mathura itself, king Ugrasen being sometimes 
styled Surasen. 
t There are said to be 5 hills, 11 rocks, 4 lakes, 84 ponds, and 12 wells. 
