Braj ki Holi
By Justice Katju
The great Hindu festival of Holi, known as the festival of colours, is fallling shortly, on 14th March. It will be celebrated with great gaiety, fervour, and enthusiasm in large parts of India, particularly by the youth.
But it is in the region called Braj, which is the region around the city of Mathura in UP, that it is celebrated with particular revelry, festivity, carousal, liveliness and exhilaration.
It is often said that those who have not seen the Holi of Braj, which lasts for a week, have not seen India.
But before knowing about the Holi of Braj one should first know something about Braj.
Braj is the region where Lord Krishna was said to have been born, and spent his boyhood and youth. (He is later said to have migrated to Dwarka in Gujarat, after the battle with Jarasand ).
Most places around Mathura city, which form the Braj region, are associated with the life of Lord Krishna.
There is Mathura city, and there are many places near Mathura city associated with the life of Lord Krishna, e.g. Vrindavan, Gokul, Goverdhan, Barsaana, Nandgaon, etc.
In Mathura city the most renowned temple is the Dwarkadhish temple, but there are other well known temples in the city too, e.g. the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple.
About 18 kms. from Mathura city is Vrindavan, where the most famous temple is the Banke Bihari temple. While most other temples in India are managed by Brahmin priests, Banke Bihari temple is managed by members of a caste known as Gosains ( whose surnames are Gosain, Goswamy, Giri, Puri, etc ). There is an extended family of Gosains, and each member has a fixed number of days for doing ‘seva’.
There is also a South Indian temple at Vrindavan called the Rangji temple. It is said that it was built about 200 years ago by a rich North Indian merchant whose guru was a south indian sadhu. It is built like the Srirangam temple in Trichy in Tamilnadu, and its priests who manage it are all Tamilian Brahmin priests. It is a massive temple built on the pattern of South Indian temples.
There is also an ISKCON temple in Vrindavan.
In the other direction from Mathura city about 20 kms. from it, is Goverdhan. Goverdhan is the mythical mountain which Lord Krishna is said to have lifted on his finger to protect his sakhas ( boyhood companions ) from the fury of Indra, the rain god, who sent a downpour on Mathura. Very little of the original mountain now remains. There is a famous temple at Goverdhan, and many people do a 22 km.parikrama ( circumambulation) , which is in the form of a figure 8, with the temple being at the meeting point of the two loops. The bigger loop is of 13 kms. while the smaller loop is of 9 kms. I did the parikrama on foot in two stages, first the larger loop, and then about 6 months later, the smaller loop. There are numerous temples, lodges for pilgrims all along the path of the parikrama, etc.
Going further, and about 40 kms. from Mathura city is Barsaana, where there is a temple of Radha on a hillock. There the people greet each other as ‘Radhey, Radhey ‘, and not ‘ Jai Shri Krishna ‘, because Lord Krishna had left them and went to Dwarka, while Radha had remained behind to be with the people of Barsaana. People, especially women, dance at that temple.
About 9 km further from Barsaana is Nandgaon, where also Lord Krishna is said to have spent some of his childhood.
Across the Jamuna river from Mathura city is Gokul, where Lord Krishna was taken in a basket by his father Vasudev, to protect him from the fury of his maternal uncle Kansa, who had been told in an Akashvani ( voice coming from the sky ) that the 8th child of his sister Devaki ( Lord Krishna’s mother ) would slay him.
Near Gokul is the mazhaar of the Hindi poet Raskhan, who, though a Muslim, was enraptutred in Krishna bhakti. On a tablet at the mazhaar are inscribed a few verses from Raskhan’s famous poem :
” Manush ho to wahi Raskhan, bason Brij Gokul gaon ke dwaaran
Jo pashu hon to khan bas meron, chiron nit Nand ki dhenu manjaaran
Paahan hon to to wahi giri ko jo dhariyon kar chetra purandar kaaran
Jo khag hon to baserron karau mili kalindi kul kadamb ki daaran “
Near Gokul is also Raman Reti, which is the ashram ( hermitage ) of the saint Swami Gurusharananand, whom I know well.
Further on, about 30 kms. across the Jamuna from Mathura city is the temple of Dauji ( Baldau or Balaram ), the elder brother of Lord Krishna.
Now let me describe the Holi of Braj
The Holi of Braj is of about one week, when the whole region becomes a blaze of colours.
It begins with ‘ lathmaar ‘ Holi at Barsaana, which was held this year on 8th March. The young men from Nandgaon walk 9 kms.to Barsaana,where the womenfolk beat them on their heads with sticks. The young men have to wear a protective headcover, otherwise they could get serious injuries on their heads. This is perhaps symbolic of the women being angry because Lord Krishna abandoned them and went away to Dwarka in Gujarat, while Radha remained with the people of Barsaana
Thereafter every day there is some event somewhere in the Braj region, for a whole week. At many places ‘ raas leela’ is shown on a stage, that is, scenes of Lord Krishna playing with his gopis, etc
During one Holi week in Mathura, when I was a Judge in the Allahabad High Court, I was doing the parikrama of Goverdhan. I had started late in the evening, and it became dark later, when at a place called Jaitpura I saw people dancing. They caught hold of me and said they would not let me go unless I danced with them. I pleaded that I did not know how to dance, but they insisted, and I had to dance ( the first, and hopefully, the last time in my life ).
The last day of the Holi week is the Dauji ka Huranga, at the temple of Dauji ( Baldau or Balaram, the elder brother of Lord Krishna), which is about 30 km from Mathura city.
There is a square open place there , surrounded by walls. My wife and I went on the first floor of a building, and saw the event from there. Everywhere colour was being thrown, blue, green, yellow and red. The men folk were in the centre of the square, and the womenfolk tore the upper garments of the menfolk, dipped them in coloured water, which was all around, and beat the menfolk with those torn clothes. Perhaps this was symbolic of women returning what they got from their men during the rest of the 364 days in the year !
The Urdu poet Nazir Akbarabadi wrote this beautiful poem about Holi
The Urdu poet Hasrat Mohani also wrote many poems in praise of Lord Krishna
In fact after performing Haj, Hasrat Mohani would invariably visit the temples in Mathura and the Braj region
In and around Mathura ( and also other neighbouring places like Agra, Firozabad, etc) there is a heavy concentration of people called Chaubes ( also known as Chaturvedis ), who are devotees of Lord Krishna, and about whom I made some fun, which drew their ire against me
I was told by one Chaube that Chaubes of Mathura celebrate ( utsav manaate hain ) for 366 days in a year. I asked him when do you people work for a living ? He replied that we are sakhas ( companions ) of Lord Krishna. We do not have to work, but only celebrate ‘utsavs’. Others have to work and feed us !
