हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Radha Madan Mohan Temple, Vrindavan

The tall red sandstone temple on the Dwadashaditya mound above the old Kaliya Ghat, the oldest standing temple of Vrindavan’s Goswami age. The original murti, worshipped by Sanatana Goswami, was carried to Rajasthan in the 17th century and is now at Karauli.

Built: Late 16th century, red sandstone tower raised by Ram Das Kapur of Multan for Sanatana Goswami’s murtiWhere: Uttar Pradesh (Mathura district)Deity: Shri Madan Mohan with Radha and Lalita27.58° N, 77.69° E
  1. Late 16th century
  2. 1669
Photo: Thomas and William Daniell · Public domain

01Sanatana Goswami’s Lord

Sanatana Goswami, once a minister at the court of Bengal, gave up everything to follow Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and came to live in a hut on this mound by the Yamuna. The Gaudiya accounts say he received the murti of Madan Mohan from a Chaube family of Mathura and served him with dry chapatis begged in the village. A salt merchant, Ram Das Kapur of Multan, whose boat had run aground on the river below, prayed to Madan Mohan, got free, and in gratitude paid for the temple. Its tall curved tower of red sandstone has stood above the river since the late 16th century.

02To Karauli

After Aurangzeb’s order of 1669 to demolish the temples of Braj, the murti of Madan Mohan was taken west for safety, first to Jaipur and then to Karauli, where the rajas of Karauli built a temple for him that is still the centre of the town’s devotion. In the Vrindavan temple a pratibhu murti, a representative image, is worshipped. The old tower, though bare inside, is one of the great sights of Vrindavan, and a newer shrine beside it holds the daily worship.

The life of this place

  1. Late 16th centuryRam Das Kapur of Multan builds the sandstone temple for Sanatana Goswami’s Madan Mohan.
  2. 1669Aurangzeb orders temples demolished (Maasir-i-Alamgiri); the murti is carried west for safety, later to Karauli.
Visiting

The temple stands on a mound near the Yamuna, a few minutes’ walk west of Banke Bihari; the climb gives a view over old Vrindavan.

Nearby

Banke Bihari Temple, VrindavanStanding
Renaissance and the struggle for Swaraj

Banke Bihari Temple, Vrindavan

The most visited temple of Vrindavan, home of the murti that appeared to the singer-saint Swami Haridas in Nidhivan. Krishna stands here in the tribhanga pose, bent in three places, and the curtain is drawn every few minutes so that no devotee looks too long.

Govind Dev Temple, VrindavanRuined
The Mughal era and the resistance

Govind Dev Temple, Vrindavan

The red sandstone temple Raja Man Singh of Amber raised for Govind Dev in 1590, the largest temple north India had seen in centuries. In 1670 the murti was carried away to Kachwaha country ahead of Aurangzeb’s order, and it is worshipped in Jaipur to this day; the building stands without its upper storeys.

Radha Raman Temple, VrindavanStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Radha Raman Temple, Vrindavan

One of the seven old Goswami temples of Vrindavan, home of the Radha Raman murti that manifested from a shaligram shila for Gopal Bhatta Goswami in 1542. Unlike the other old murtis, it never left Vrindavan.

VrindavanStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Vrindavan

The forest of Tulsi on the Yamuna where Shri Krishna grazed cows and danced the Raas with the gopis. Rediscovered by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the six Goswamis in the 16th century, it now has thousands of temples.