हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Gokul (Thiruvaippadi)

The cowherd village across the Yamuna where Vasudeva carried the newborn Krishna on the night of his birth. The Alvars called it Thiruvaippadi, the holy settlement of the herdsmen, and Andal and Periyalvar sang it as if they lived there.

Built: Tirtha of Shri Krishna’s childhood; the present town of temples dates from Vitthalnath’s settlement in the 16th centuryWhere: Uttar Pradesh (Mathura district)Deity: Shri Krishna as the child of Nanda and Yashoda (Navamohana Krishna in the Divya Desam lists); Rukmini and Satyabhama27.44° N, 77.72° E
  1. Dvapara Yuga, end
  2. Alvar period
  3. 16th century
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

01Nanda’s village

The Bhagavata Purana tells how Vasudeva crossed the Yamuna in the storm with the child in a basket, Adishesha spreading his hoods above, left him beside the sleeping Yashoda and carried her daughter back to the prison. In Gokul the child drank Putana’s life with her milk, broke the cart Shakatasura, was tied to the mortar by Yashoda and pulled it between the two arjuna trees, freeing Nalakuvara and Manigriva. Later Nanda moved the herds to Vrindavan. Brajvasis keep these places by name along the river.

02Sung from the far south

Periyalvar sang the child Krishna of Thiruvaippadi in ten pasurams, Andal in five and Thirumangai Alvar in seven, twenty-two in all. Andal’s Thiruppavai, sung each Margazhi morning in every Vishnu temple of the south, is set among the gopis of this village. The town as pilgrims know it took shape in the 16th century, when Vallabhacharya identified the site and his son Vitthalnath settled here; Akbar’s farmans exempted his lands. Gokul has many shrines; which one stands as the Divya Desam is not fixed in the sources, and Sri Vaishnava pilgrims worship at the town’s temples and the Yamuna ghats.

The life of this place

  1. Dvapara Yuga, endShri Krishna spends his infancy in Nanda’s village, by the traditional reckoning before Kali Yuga began in 3102 BCE.
  2. Alvar periodPeriyalvar, Andal and Thirumangai Alvar sing Thiruvaippadi.
  3. 16th centuryVitthalnath, son of Vallabhacharya, settles at Gokul and the present town grows round him.
Visiting

Gokul is about 15 km south-east of Mathura across the Yamuna. Go at Janmashtami, or for Nandotsav the day after.

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