1871 .] 
The Country of JBraj. 
41 
of rock crop up above tlie surface of tbe soil, and form the begin¬ 
ning of the celebrated range of Gobardhan, Giri-raj or the Royal 
Hill, as it is generally styled. About the centre of the line stands 
the town of Gobardhan, clustering round a vast irregularly shaped 
tank, called the Manasi Ganga. Here a great fair, known as the 
Dfpdan, or * Offering of Lamps,’ is held every year on the festival of 
the Divalf, about the beginning of the cold season, and is frequent¬ 
ly attended by as many as 100,000 visitors. On the bank stand 
two sumptuous monuments in memory of two of the late Rajas of 
Bharatpur; and from a rising ground opposite frowns the ancient 
temple of Harideva, the most solemn and imposing, save one, of all 
the religious buildings in Upper India. The pilgrims visit in 
order all the sacred sites in the neighbourhood; the village of 
Basai, where the two divine children with their foster-parents once 
came and ‘ dwelt’ (basde) ; the grove of Anng; Madhuri-kund ; Mor- 
ban, the haunt of the peacock, and Chandra-sarovar, i. e. the moon- 
lake, where Brahma joining with the Gopis in the mystic dance 
was so enraptured with delight, that all unconscious of the fleeting 
hours he allowed the single night to extend over a period of six 
months. After a visit to Paitho, where the people of Braj 1 came 
in’ ( paitha ) to take shelter from the storms of Indra under the up¬ 
lifted range, they pass along the heights of Gobardhan to Anyor, 
‘ the other end,’ and so by many sacred rocks, as Sugandhi sila, 
Sinduri Sila and Sundar Sila with its temple of Gobardlian-nath, to 
Gopalpur, Bilchu, and Gantholi, where the marriage ‘ knot’ ( gdnth ) 
was tied that confirmed the union of Radha and Krishna. Then 
following the Bharatpur frontier, they arrive at the famous Kam- 
ban, with the Luk-luk cave where the boys played blind-man’s- 
buff, and Aghasur’s cave where the demon of that name was 
destroyed, and leaving Kanwaroganw enter again upon British 
territory near the village of Unchaganw with its richly endowed 1 
temple of Baldeva. Close by is Barsana, where Radha was brought 
up by her parents Brikhbhan and Kfrat, with Dohanikund near 
Chiksauli, where as Jasoda was cleansing her ‘ milk-pail’ (dohani) 
she first saw the youthful pair together and vowed that one day 
passed through it, it is now that most melancholy of all spectacles, a modern, 
ruin. 
6 
