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Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna at the centre of Braj or
Brij-bhoomi, called Shri Krishna Janma-Bhoomi, literally: 'Lord
Krishna's birthplace'. The Keshav Dev Temple was built in ancient
times on the site of Krishna's legendary birthplace (an underground
prison). According to the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana epics,
Mathura was the capital of the Surasena Kingdom, ruled by Kansa the
maternal uncle of Shri Krishna.
Mathura is full of stories of Krishna, his birth and the part of
his life he spent there with radha Rani. There was a king named
Ugrasena ruled over Mathura. Once Ugrasena and his wife were taking
a walk in the gardens when a demon saw the queen and fell in love
with her. In his lust for her he diverted Ugrasena, assumed his
form and the child born of this union was Kansa. Kansa grew up to
dethrone his father and imprison his cousin, Devaki. While driving
Devaki and her husband
Vasudeva in his chariot, Kansa heard a voice in the sky telling him
that he way carrying a woman whose eighth child would kill him.
Kansa immediately prepared to till Devaki. But Vasudeva intervened
and begged for her life with the promise that they would hand over
all their children to him soon after their birth. So Kansa
imprisoned them and killed seven
children.
Krishna Returns to Mathura
Now stories about Krishna's deeds spread far and wide. When Kamsa
heard about Krishna, he was sure that Krishna was Devaki's eight
born child, born to destroy him. He, in turn, planned to invite
Krishna to Mathura and have him killed. He summoned an old minister
by the name of Akrura and sent him to Gokul with an invitation. Now
Akrura was wise. He knew the real story of Krishna. That Krishna
was a divine being born to kill Kamsa. He also knew that Nanda and
Yashoda were not really Krishna's parents. On arriving in Gokul,
Akrura told Krishna and his parents everything. Nanda and Yashoda
were horrified, they wondered how a teenager like Krishna could
take on a warrior like Kamsa. But Krishna insisted on going and he
and Balrama left for Mathura.
In the mean time, back in Mathura, Kamsa was thinking of ways of
having Krishna killed. He asked an elephant trainer to have a mad
elephant trample Krishna. Failing that he was sure that his best
wrestlers Mushtika & Chanura could challenge Krishna &
Balrama to a match and kill them.
When Krishna arrived in Mathura, the elephant trainer was waiting
for him at the gate. He sent the mad elephant Krishna's way.
Krishna picked up the elephant by its trunk, hurled it into the air
and killed it.
Krishna and Balrama then made way for the wrestling arena where
Kamsa was. Kamsa then told Krishna and Balrama that his foremost
wrestlers Mushtika and Chanura had heard of their strength and
valor and would like to challenge them. Balrama killed Mushtika in
mortal combat and then Krishna fought and killed Chanura.
Krishna then rushed towards Kamsa, grabbed his sword and killed
him. Krishna then lifted the crown from Kamsa's severed head and
walked towards the dungeon where King Ugrasena was imprisoned,
freed him and offered him the crown. King Ugrasena was touched that
Krishna would make him King again. Krishna then freed his parents
Devaki and Vasudeva and had a joyous re-union with
them.
The land of Braj starts from Kotban
near Hodel about 95 km from Delhi and ends at Runakuta which is
known specially for its association with the poet Surdas, an ardent
Krishna devotee long line of picturesque ghats - with their steps
leading to the water's edge, arched gateways and temple spires
extending along the right bank of the River Yamuna, emphasise the
sacred character of the town of Mathura. The birth place of Lord
Krishna, "the best known, best loved and most complex of Lord
Vishnu's manifestations" : Mathura is today an important place of
pilgrimage
Before the advent of Buddha the
territory that Mathura is located in was called Surasena. In
Buddhist literature Mathura is called Madhura. It was also known as
Mathera. Mathura was a prosperous city and the capital of a large
territory. A Buddhist center was established in Mathura during the
reign of the Mauryas dynasty. This center existed for a few
centuries. Emperor Ashoka made many Buddha stupas in Mathura on the
bank of the Yamuna. Emperor Kaniska in the first century BC and his
successors constructed many Buddhist stupas and
chaityas.
At this time Mathura was the largest
city in North India and was the capital city for the area for
administration. During these times the present town of Vrindavana
was just dense forests without any people living there. In the
beginning of the 5th century AD the Chinese traveler Fahien saw
twenty viharas (Buddhist monasteries) and three thousand Buddhist
priests living in Mathura. By the middle of the 6th century AD
Buddhism started to decline in the Mathura area. Many Buddhist
relics have been found in the Mathura area. Many of which are found
in the museums in Mathura, Calcutta and Lucknow. There is not much
known about the period between 700 AD and 1018. Mahmud Ghazni
invaded Mathura in 1018. He stole all the riches of the Deities,
their jewels, diamonds, gold and silver. He then destroyed the
temples. It took his men 20 days to plunder the city. He took 5,000
prisoners and took over 30 million
rupees.
He took so many statues of gold and
silver and jewelry that it took over 100 camels to carry everything
that he took. Tarikhi Jamina wrote a record of Mahmud Ghazni in
which he described Mathura at the time that it was attacked. He
wrote “If any emperors would ever dream of building temples and
palaces like the one in Mathura he would have to spent thousands of
golden drachmas. It is doubtful that the best sculptors and artists
could build a city like this if they worked uninterruptedly for two
hundred years.” According to some historian, in the temples in
Mathura at this time, there were five Deities made of pure gold,
each 5m (15 ft) high and the eyes of the Deities were made of
diamonds, each worth not less than 5,000 golden
drachmas.
They were set with emeralds that
were extremely brilliant and transparent. During his rule, Pherose
Khan Jughalak (1351-1388) destroyed all the temples that were
within the territory that he ruled. While he ruled no one was
allowed to go on pilgrimage to holy places or allowed to bath in a
sacred place. From the eleventh century until the end of the
sixteenth century temples in Braja were periodically destroyed.
Sekandar Lodi (1488-1516) first duty after conquering a place was
to destroy all the temples there. He attacked Mathura in 1500. Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited Vrindavana in 1514 during the rule of
Sekandar Lodhi. Babar, the king of Kabul defeated Ibrahim Lodi in
the battle of Panipat in 1526. He died in 1530, and his son Humayun
took over the throne of Northern India. After ruling for ten years
Humayun was defeated by Sher Shah in 1540 and he fled to Kabul.
During his rule Sher Shah built a road between Punjab and Bengal,
which had wells every two miles and pilgrim sheds along the way for
Hindus and Muslims.
This
road helped to make it easier for pilgrims from Bengal to visit
Vrindavana. In 1556 Humayun returned and defeated Sher Shah. During
this time the Mughals and Pathanas were busy fighting with each
other and did not have any time to bother any temple. Madana Mohana
(Gopala) revealed himself to Sanatana Gosvami in 1533 and Govinda
Deva revealed. Himself to Rupa Gosvami in 1535, during the rule of
Humayun. Soon after returning to India, Humayun died and his son
Akbar took over the throne. Akbar was a tolerant and pious emperor
and he did not bother Hindus in any way. Aurangzeb, the great
grandson of Akbar, had his army attack Vrindavana in 1670 and had
many of the temples destroyed or desecrated. In 1757, Nadir Shah’s
commander in chief, Ahmed Shah Durani, plundered Braja Mandal and
killed some of the residents. In 1803, Mathura came under the
British rule and from then on there was peace in the area of
Mathura
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