Mathurá: A District MemoirPrinted at the North-western provinces and Oudh government Press, 1883 - 449 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adjoining Agra Agra Canal Aligarh ancient architecture Aurangzeb AUTOTYPE Baladeva baniya Barsána Bharat-pur Bihári Bráhman Braj Brindá-ban Buddhist building built called carved centre century Chand character Chhátá city of Mathurá commemorated death Delhi derived Deva district divinity Emperor erected feet founder Ghát Gobardhan Gobind Gokul Gosáin Growse Hari Dás Háthras Hindi Hindu holy honour Huvishka India inscription Jalesar Jamuná Játs Jaypur Khán Kosi Krishna Kshatriya Lál land latter legend Madan Mohan Mahá-ban Maholi Mainpuri district masonry Mát Mathurá miles modern mosque Muhammadan native neighbourhood original pargana pilgrims pillars probably Purána Rádhá Rájá Rám Ráni reign river road sacred Sambat Sanskrit saráe sculpture Seth shrine side sikhara Sindhia Sinh Sonkh spot Srí stone style Sudi Súraj tank temple Thákur tion town tree Vaishnava village wall word और की के को जो तब में सब है
Popular passages
Page 190 - Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet — Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. God is law, say the wise; O Soul, and let us rejoice, For if He thunder by law, the thunder is yet His voice. Law is God, say some: no God at all, says the fool; For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool...
Page 213 - Sambat 1680 ; and therefore on all grounds we may fairly conclude as an established fact that he flourished at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century AD, in the reigns of the Emperors Akbar and Jahangir.
Page 34 - Hindu places of worship into caravanserais and colleges. Their stone images were given to the butchers to serve them as meat-weights, and all the Hindus in Mathura were strictly prohibited from shaving their heads and beards, and performing their ablutions. He thus put an end to all the idolatrous rites of the infidels there; and no Hindu, if he wished to have his head or beard shaved, could get a barber to do it.
Page 93 - Panda went round and dipped in the pond, and then with his dripping turban and loin-cloth ran back and made a feint of passing through the fire. In reality he only jumped over the outermost verge of the smouldering ashes, and then dashed into his cell again, much to the dissatisfaction of the spectators, who say that the former incumbent used to do it much more thoroughly. If on the next recurrence of the festival the Panda shows himself equally timid, the village proprietors threaten to eject him...
Page 244 - Architecture, speaks of this temple as " one of the most interesting and elegant in India, and the only one, perhaps, from •which a European architect might borrow a few hints.
Page 96 - Handfuls of red powder (abir) mixed with tiny particles of glistening talc were thrown about, up to the balconies above and down on the heads of the people below, and seen through this atmosphere of coloured cloud, the frantic gestures of the throng, their white clothes and faces all stained with red and yellow patches, and the great timbrels with bunches of peacocks' feathers, artificial flowers and tinsel stars stuck in their rim, borne above the players' heads and now and again tossed up high...
Page 92 - ... horns, as they dodge in and out among the crowd, and now and again have their flight cut off, and are driven back upon the crowd of excited viragoes. Many laughable incidents occur. Not unfrequently blood is drawn ; but an accident of this kind is regarded rather as an omen of good fortune; and has never been known to give rise to any ill-feeling. Whenever the fury of their female assailants appears to be subsiding, it is again excited by the men shouting at them snatches of ribald rhymes.
Page 431 - The subject is not altogether new ; on the contrary it has given rise to a vast number of speculations, but most of those hitherto put forth have been of the most haphazard description. The present is the first attempt, on a larger scale, to attack the problem in a scientific spirit and on consistent and wellfounded historical and grammatical principles. The general position that the author maintains is that ' local names in Upper India are, as a rule, of no very remote antiquity, and are, primd...
Page 37 - Growse's Mathura, p. 33. some twelve or fifteen years later it was overthrown by Aurangzeb. " Glory be to God," says the author of the Maasir — " that so difficult an undertaking has been successfully accomplished in the present auspicious reign, wherein so many dens of heathenism and idolatry have been destroyed. Seeing the power of Islam and the efficacy of true religion, the proud Rajas felt their breath burning in their throats, and became as dumb as a picture on a wall. The idols, large and...
Page 91 - S. 91: the cheerineas of the holiday-makers as they throng the narrow, winding streets on their way to and from the central square of the town of Barsana, where they break up into groups of bright and ever-varying combinations of colour; with the buffooneries of the village clowns and the grotesque dances of the lusty swains, who, with...