हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Govind Dev Ji Temple, Jaipur

The Govind Dev of Vrindavan, the deity Rupa Goswami served, brought away from Braj in the troubled years of the late 17th century and enshrined by Sawai Jai Singh II in his new city. The kings of Jaipur ruled as his diwans.

Built: 18th century, Sawai Jai Singh II, in the Jai Niwas garden of the City PalaceWhere: Rajasthan (Jaipur)Deity: Shri Radha-Govind Dev26.93° N, 75.82° E
  1. 1590
  2. 1669–70
  3. 1727
Photo: Siddharth429 · CC BY-SA 4.0

01From Vrindavan to Jaipur

Rupa Goswami, sent to Braj by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, found the murti of Govind Dev at the Gomatila in Vrindavan and served him in a simple shrine; in 1590 Raja Man Singh of Amber raised the great red sandstone temple there. When Aurangzeb’s orders against the temples of Braj came in 1669–70, the priests carried Govind Dev west, and after years in camps and villages he came to Kachhwaha country. Sawai Jai Singh II, who founded Jaipur in 1727, set him in a garden pavilion facing the palace, so that the king could see his deity from his own rooms in the Chandra Mahal.

02Seven jhankis a day

Darshan opens and closes through the day in seven jhankis, from mangala before dawn to shayan at night, and the hall fills each time with the people of the walled city, many on their way to work. The rulers of Jaipur styled themselves diwans of Govind Dev, servants governing on his behalf. The hall in front of the shrine, rebuilt in the 20th century, has a wide span without pillars so that the crowd has a clear sight of the deity. Janmashtami and Holi here are the city’s own festivals.

The life of this place

  1. 1590Raja Man Singh builds the Govind Dev temple at Vrindavan.
  2. 1669–70The deity is carried away from Vrindavan as the temples of Braj are targeted.
  3. 1727Sawai Jai Singh II founds Jaipur and enshrines Govind Dev in the palace garden.
Visiting

Enter from Jaleb Chowk or the north gate of the City Palace complex; the mangala jhanki is soon after dawn.

Nearby

Jantar Mantar, JaipurStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Jantar Mantar, Jaipur

The open-air observatory of nineteen masonry instruments that Sawai Jai Singh II built beside his palace, the largest of the five he raised. Its Samrat Yantra, about 27 m high, is the largest stone sundial in the world; the site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010.

JaipurStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Jaipur

The walled city Sawai Jai Singh II laid out on the plain below Amber in 1727, on a grid of broad streets and blocks drawn by his architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. Govind Dev rules it from the palace garden, and the Jantar Mantar measures its sky.

Galtaji (Galta Peeth), JaipurStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Galtaji (Galta Peeth), Jaipur

A gorge in the hills east of Jaipur where a spring fills a chain of kunds, held to be the tapobhumi of the rishi Galava. It became the first peeth of the Ramanandi Vaishnavas of the north.

Moti Dungri Ganesh Temple, JaipurStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Moti Dungri Ganesh Temple, Jaipur

Jaipur’s Ganesh, at the foot of the little Moti Dungri hill, brought to the city in 1761. Every wedding invitation in Jaipur goes to him first, and every new car is brought here for puja.