Mathura Pilgrimage Travel Packages - Mathura Hotel Tours India

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	A land soaked in history and mythology, Mathura is the birthplace of the eighth Avatar of Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna. Brajbhoomi, the land where Shri Krishna was born and spent his youth, has little towns and villages, which still resonate with his childhood pranks and youthful dalliance with the gopis (cowherd girls) in the forests of Vrindavan. Mathura lies on the banks of the Yamuna River believed to have been built at the sites of ancient temples and shrines. Along with neighboring towns Govardhan, Nandgaon and Vrindavan, Mathura is a major pilgrimage site for Hindus. The town of Govardhan
	was later immortalized in the poems of Mirabai, a princess who became an ardent devotee of Krishna. A little away from Mathura is Govardhan, where young Krishna lifted the Giriraj hillock and held it on his fingertip for a week to protect the people of Braj from storms and rains. Every phase of Lord Krishna's early life is embedded in realism in Mathura. Fact mixes with make-believe and it's all there.

Lord Krishna

Krishna was born of Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva, while the couple was imprisoned in Mathura by the evil king Kansa. Legends have it that the eighth child of Devaki was destined to kill Kansa. However, Kansa managed to kill all children, but Krishna, the eighth child escaped. When Krishna was born, the doors of the prison magically opened and the guards fell asleep. Vasudeva then took Krishna across the Yamuna River to Gokul to be cared for by his foster parents, Nand and Yasoda in Vrindavan.

When Krishna and Balarama were older, they were invited to Mathura, where Kansa was planning their deaths. However, Krishna killed Kansa and thereafter established the devout king Ugrasena as the emperor of several kingdoms. Krishna lived in Mathura for the next 18 years before moving on to Dwarka.

The history of Mathura dates back to 600 BC with a large number of sculptural arts emerging in this region. However, in the 11th century AD, Mahmud Ghazni destroyed a large number of Buddhist and Hindu shrines. In the 15th century, Sikandar Lodi, one of the Sultans from Delhi, continued the plunder of Mathura. The last great Mughal ruler and a fanatic Muslim, Aurangzeb destroyed the Kesava Deo temple and built a mosque here. The Afghani raider Ahmed Shah Abdali dealt the final blow in 1757, when he torched Mathura.

The Krishna Janma Bhoomi is the prime attraction of Mathura. A stone slab marks the original spot of the birth of Lord Krishna in the Katra Keshav Deo Temple. The main shrine is unobtrusive, a narrow passageway leading into a small room with a raised platform, and pictures of Krishna and tales of his birth adorning the walls.

One of the finest and most visited shrines in Mathura is the Dwarkadhish Temple built in 1814. Ornate, exquisite and majestic, this five-storey high temple of Matura, is built on seventy-two pillars. From the

temple dome waves an eighty-four foot long multicoloured flag adorned with the symbols of the sun and moon.

A pilgrimage Mathura is incomplete without a trip to the numerous Ghats, spread across the right bank of the Yamuna. One of the most prominent ghats is the Vishram Ghat, where Lord Krishna is believed to have rested after killing Kansa.

A pilgrimage tour to Mathura entails a visit to its Kunds or holy waters. It is believed that there were 159 ancient kunds in all. Of these only four survive, the Balbhadra and Saraswati, the elegant Shiv Tal and the famous Potara Kund where the child Krishna's clothes are believed to have been washed.

Janmashtami, the birth of Lord Krishna is celebrated with great gusto in Mathura. Plays based on the life of Krishna are staged and devotional songs are played. As the hour of Krishna's birth approaches, the atmosphere becomes charged with frenzied dancing and singing in the temples. The Braj Yatra, which commences a day after Janmashtami and lasts for 50 days, deserves special mention. The spiritual merit accruing out of this pilgrimage is immense. It is believed that those who undertake the parikrama on their pilgrimage are delivered from all sins, and gain salvation.

The best time for a pilgrimage tour to Mathura is during winter, between the months of October and March, as the summer tends to be extremely hot.

The nearest airport to Mathura is Agra, at a distance of 47 km. There are regular flights from Agra to several cities of India, including Delhi, Khajuraho and Varanasi.

Mathura has its own railway station. Mathura is well connected by train with Agra (1 hour), Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur and Kota.

Mathura is very well connected by a network of roads and road transport to all major towns of Uttar Pradesh and surrounding areas. Mathura is 141 km south of Delhi and 47 km northwest of Agra.