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Oct. 4, 1872.]
Is not certainly known. He was succeeded by his brother Ranjit Sinh; but the whole country had been so thoroughly subjugated, that the title was at first merely a barren honour. It was only at the intercession of Súraj Mal's widow, the Ráni Kishori, that the conqueror allowed the new Rájá to retain the Fort of Bharatpur with an extent of territory yielding an annual income of nine lakhs. Barsána never recovered from this blow, and in 1812 sustained further misfortune, when the Gaurna Thákurs, its Zamindárs, being in circumstances of difficulty, and probably distrustful of the stability of British rule, then only recently established, were mad enough to transfer their whole estate to the oftquoted Lálá Bábú for the paltry sum of Rs. 602 and the condition of holding land on rather more favourable terms than other tenants. The parish now yields Government an annual rental of Rs. 3109, and the absentee landlords about as much, while it receives nothing from them in return, though their donations for charitable purposes in the neighbourhood of their own home in Bengal are often on a magnificent scale. Thus the appearance now presented by Barsána is a most forlorn and melancholy one.
SKETCHES OF MATHURA.
The hill is still to a limited extent known as Brahmaká-pahár or Brahma's hill: and hence it may be inferred with certainty that Barsána is a corruption of the Sanskrit compound Brahmasánu, which bears the same meaning. Its four prominent peaks are regarded as emblematic of the four-faced divinity and are each crowned with some building; the first with the group of temples dedicated to Láṛli Ji, the other three with smaller edifices, known respectively as the Mán-Mandir, the Dán-garh and the Mor-Kutți. A second hill of less extent and elevation completes the amphitheatre in which the town is set, and the space between the two ranges gradually contracts to a narrow path which barely allows a single traveller on foot to pass between the shelving crags that tower above him on either side. This pass is famous as the Sánkari-khor, literally "the narrow opening" and is the scene of a mela in the month of Bhádon, often attended by as many as 10,000 people. The crowds divide according to their sex, and cluster about the rocks round two little shrines erected on either side of the ravine for the temporary reception of figures of Rádhá and Krishna, and indulge to their heart's content in all the licentious
A similar use of the local form Khor, for Khol, may be observed in the village of Khaira, where is a pond called
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banter appropriate to the occasion. At the other mouth of the pass is a deep dell between the two high peaks of the Mán-Mandir and the Mor-Kutti with a masonry tank in the centre of a dense thicket called the Gahrwarban: and a principal feature in the diversions of the day is the scrambling of sweetmeats by the better class of visitors, seated on the terraces of the PeacockPavilion above, among the multitudes that throng the margin of the tank some 150 feet below.
The essentially Hindi form of the title Lárlí, equivalent to the Sanskrit Lalitá, may be taken as an indication of the modern growth of the local cultus. Even in the Brahma Vaivarta, the last of the Puráņas, and the one specially devoted to Rádhá's praises, there is no authority for any such appellation, though it gives a professedly exhaustive list of her titles, which are 16 in number and as follows:
Rádhá, Ráseśvari, Rásávásini, Ránkeśvari, Krishna-pánádhiká, Krishna-priya, Krishna
svarspini,
Krishna, Vrindá-vani, Vrindá, Vrindavanainodini,
Chandravati, Chandra-Kántá, Śata-chandranibhánana,
Krishna-vámánga-sambhútá, Paramánanda
rúpini.
Nand-gán w, as the reputed home of Krishná's foster-father, with its spacious temple of Nand Rae Jí on the brow of the hill overlooking the village, is in all respects an exact parallel to Barsána. The distance between the two places is only 5 miles, and when the nakára is beaten at the one, it can be heard at the other. The temple of Nand Ráe, though large, is in a clumsy style of architecture and apparently dates only from the middle of last century. Its founder is said to have been one Rup Síñh, a Sinsinwár Ját. It consists of an open nave, with choir and sacrarium beyond, the latter being flanked on either side by a Rasoi and a Sej-mahall, and has two towers, or sikharas. It stands in the centre of a paved court-yard, surrounded by a lofty wall with corner kiosks, which command a very extensive view of the Bharatpur hills and the level expanse of the Mathurá district as far as Gobardhan. The village which clusters at the foot and on the slope of the rock is for the most part of a mean description, but contains a few handsome houses, more especially one erected by
Chintá-Khori Kund, corresponding to the more common Sanskrit compound Chinta-harana.
