The Travels of a Deity
A FRIEND WITH FRIENDS in the right places had piloted us into the shrine well before daybreak, before the massed crowds of devotees waiting outside its great gateway had been granted entry. Just before the sun rose, the heavy wooden doors, studded with metal spikes, swung open, and the faithful surged into the courtyard in their hundreds.
Nathdwara is the centre of the Vaishnava tradition of spirituality and ecstatic devotion known as the Pushti Marg, ‘the Way of Grace’, which is focused on the worship of Shrinathji, Krishna visualised as a seven-year-old child. To describe Shrinathji as an icon is misleading, for the devout treat him as a svarupa, a living manifestation of the Divine. In Nathdwara, the god is the king. His shrine is described, not as a mandir or temple, but as a haveli or palace. The town’s calendar turns on the axis of his daily, monthly and seasonal activities. Each darshan
As we followed Shrinathji’s progress from one darshan to the next, we realised how silken turmeric could be and yet how pungent; how camphor can prickle the skin and stir the throat to melody. The burning orange of one pichhvai resonated with fires in winter, while the lotuses floating on the crinkled blue surface of another plunged us into a mythic Yamuna. The tinkling of bells sparked off the honey-silvered flavour of prasad on the palate. To trace the circumference of the haveli
The Pushti Marg, whose followers are known as the Vallabha sampradaya—after their founder, the philosopher Vallabhacharya (1479-1531 CE)—rejects self-mortifying austerity. It teaches that spiritual transcendence can be achieved in the midst of the householder’s worldly life. It regards every earthly pleasure, if refined, as a reflection of Shrinathji
EACH DAY IN Nathdwara summoned forth a new surprise. The doors of a balcony would be flung open, and a burst of music would herald another darshan
Nathdwara is the centre of the Vaishnava tradition of spirituality and ecstatic devotion known as the Pushti Marg, 'The way of grace', which is focused on the worship of Shrinathji, Krishna visualised as a seven-year-old
That image is distinctive. Shrinathji is represented with his left arm upraised, lifting Mount Govardhan to protect the villagers of Vrindavan from the anger of the sky-god Indra. His right arm rests on his waist. His skin is rendered in the deep nocturnal blue reserved for Vishnu, suggestive of his cosmic nature. His extraordinary dagger-shaped eyes look upon his worshippers in an attitude of pushti or grace. Meanwhile, the icon in worship—which the laity cannot approach—is reported by scholars to be reddish-black in colour, similar to the rocks near the summit of the Govardhan Hill in Mathura, where it was discovered by Vallabhacharya and his disciples in 1493 CE.
Long worshipped by villagers as a naga or serpent guardian, the icon was consecrated and installed in a temple at the site in the early 16th century, even as northern India slid into a time of turbulence. Within the space of three decades, the embattled Lodi dynasty was overthrown by Babur, whose son Humayun was in turn driven into exile by Sher Shah Sur, the founder of the Suri dynasty whose last representative, Hemu, was defeated by Humayun’s son Akbar. During this period, the the icon of Shrinathji
Vitthalnathji, whose artistic preoccupations rivalled his scholarly commitments, imparted to the Pushti Marg its dazzling aesthetic character. He organised the rasa mandalis or companies dedicated to the sacred choreographic theatre of the rasa, Shrinathji’s divine revels. Combining rasa with raga (music and poetry), bhoga (feast) and shrungara (ornament), Vitthalnathji’s seva cast its enchantment over a wide variety of followers. The teacher maintained strong connections at court. The Baso-baavan Vaishnav ni Varta
Mughal patronage of the sampradaya continued through the reigns of Jehangir and Shah Jehan, as their firmans, granting lands and titles, attest (those whose ideological fixations prevent them from acknowledging such imperial proclamations should consult the National Archives of India, the archives of the Vrindavan Shodh Sansthan, and the sampradaya
In 1670, the 15-year-old Damodarji, the Tilakayat of the time, set out on a dangerous journey westward to Rajasthan, in disguise, with Shrinathji concealed in his bullock cart. Two years later, deity and custodian began a new life under the protection of Mewar’s Sisodia rulers, in Sinhad, a village that grew into Nathdwara. It was a long journey from Mathura, but a longer one yet from the Andhra country where Vallabhacharya’s Telugu Brahmin parents had originated. The circulations of the Vallabha sampradaya
BY: Ranjit Hoskote
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