JO 
The Country of Braj. 
[No. 1, 
prepared for Krishna’s expiatory ablution after he had slain the 
bull Arishta. At midnight, on the 8 th day of the dark fortnight of 
the month Kartik, the spirits of all the holy places in India renew 
their visit to this auspicious spot; and every devout Hindu who at 
that particular time takes a plunge beneath the wave, is washed 
clean from every sin, and acquires the same amount of merit as if 
he had made a separate pilgrimage to each of the assembled divi¬ 
nities at his own special locality. The town which has arisen on 
the margin of these two famous lakes, is of considerable extent, 
and is crowded with religious edifices, the pious foundations of 
princes and pilgrims from the most remote parts of India. One 
temple in particular may be mentioned as erected by the Baja of 
Manipur, from the far east of Bengal. The two lakes are parted only 
by a broad stone terrace, and are both faced on all four sides with 
long, unbroken flights of steps of the same material. Ordinarily 
the water is so abundant that it washes nearly the highest tier, be¬ 
ing supplied by the natural drainage of a wide extent of woodland, 
locally called ‘ the Ghana and the charm of the broad and brim¬ 
ming basin is much enhanced by the unusual care that is taken to 
preserve it free from all pollution. Till the beginning of this cen¬ 
tury, the two reservoirs were simply as nature had designed them ; 
the present stone ghats were completed in the year 1817, at the sole 
cost of Lala Babu, a native of Calcutta, but proprietor of large landed 
estates in the neighbourhood both of Mathura and Anupshahr. 
The whole quarter of the town in the immediate vicinity of the 
lakes is occupied exclusively by a colony of Bengalis. 
On the borders of the parish of Kadha-kund is Kusum-saro- 
var, or ‘ the flowery lake,’ a magnificent sheet of water, 460 feet 
square, with broad flights of stone steps broken up on each side 
by projecting arcades of elegant design into one wide central and 
four smaller lateral ghats. A lofty terrace runs the whole length 
of the east side, having its front relieved with two-storied kiosques 
and alcoves of varied outline, and bears the stately tombs of Suraj- 
mal, the founder of the present Bliaratpur dynasty and his two 
queens, Hansiya* and Kishori. From this point rough fragments 
* Hans-ganj, on tlie bank of the Jarnuna immediately opposite Mathura, was 
founded by this Itanij in consequence of a diversion of the road wliicli once 
