Braj's place on the Divya Desam map

Uttar Pradesh holds four Divya Desams - Ayodhya (of Rama), Naimisaranya and the two in Braj: Mathura and Gokul.  These northern shrines belong to the group the tradition calls the Vada Nadu (Northern) Divya Desams, sung by the Alvars far from their Tamil homeland.

It is a beautiful truth: the same Krishna whom Braj worships as the cowherd of Vrindavan, the Tamil saints sang of, a thousand miles south, as the supreme Vishnu - Narayana himself descended. And of the three great Divya Desams of Krishna's own life - Mathura (his birth), Gokul (his childhood) and Dwaraka (his kingship) - two lie here in Braj, while Dwaraka stands in distant Gujarat. So Braj is not only the heart of North Indian Krishna-bhakti; it is also a major station on the sacred map of the South's Sri Vaishnava tradition. 

Thiru Vada Madurai - Mathura

The first Braj Divya Desam is Mathura, known in the tradition as Thiru Vada Madurai - "Vada" meaning north, to distinguish it from "Then Madurai," the southern Madurai of Tamil Nadu.  Here the Lord is honoured as Keshava Deva, at the very birthplace of Krishna - for it was at Mathura, in the prison of the tyrant Kamsa, that Vishnu took birth as Krishna to rid the earth of evil.

For the Sri Vaishnava pilgrim, Mathura is the Divya Desam of the Lord's appearance - the place where the formless Narayana entered the world as the dark, beautiful child. In our coverage, this Divya Desam corresponds to the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi / Keshav Dev - the birthplace complex. (A born-Brajwasi notes honestly that the exact temple identified as the ancient Divya Desam is debated, given Mathura's long and turbulent history - but the sacred sthan, the birthplace, is the heart of it.) 

Thiru Aaypadi - Gokul

The second Braj Divya Desam is Gokul, known as Thiru Aaypadi (or Ayppaadi) - from aayar (cowherd) and padi (settlement): the cowherds' village, where the infant Krishna was carried to safety across the Yamuna and raised by Nanda and Yashoda.  Here the Lord is honoured as Navamohana Krishna - the ever-enchanting Krishna of the childhood leela, the butter-thief, the delight of Gokul.

A distinctive feature: at this Divya Desam, the tradition holds that the Lord is enshrined together with Rukmini and Satyabhama - unusual among the northern Divya Desams, where he is most often with a single consort. For the Sri Vaishnava, Gokul is the Divya Desam of the Lord's childhood - the sweetest of his pastimes. In our coverage, this corresponds to Gokul, the village of Krishna's infancy. (As ever, the exact temple identified with the Divya Desam is best confirmed locally - and a good guide never confuses the two Gokuls, old Mahavan-Gokul and the riverside Gokul.) 

Vrindavan & Govardhan - the extended tradition

Here a careful, honest word.  The two formally counted Braj Divya Desams are Mathura and Gokul. But some accounts of the tradition extend the Braj Divya Desam to embrace the whole leela-land - treating Mathura and Gokul as one "part," and Vrindavan and Govardhan as a second - since the Alvars sang of Krishna's pastimes across all of Braj: the Raas of Vrindavan, the lifting of Govardhan.

A good Brajwasi presents this as the varying tradition it is, without adjudicating: the standard list of the 108 names Mathura and Gokul, while the songs and the spirit of the Alvars embrace Vrindavan and Govardhan too. For the pilgrim, the practical truth is happy either way - to walk Braj is to walk the whole stage of the leela the Alvars adored. 

Rangji - the living Sri Vaishnava hub

If you would feel the Tamil Sri Vaishnava tradition alive in Braj today, go to the Rangji Temple in Vrindavan.  Built in 1851 in the grand Dravidian (South Indian) style - with its towering gopuram, its long pillared corridors, its gold dhwaja-stambha - Rangji enshrines Sri Ranganatha (Rangji), the reclining Vishnu of Srirangam and follows the Sri Vaishnava tradition of Ramanuja.

Here the Divya Prabandham is recited, the great Brahmotsav is kept in South-Indian splendour with the Rath (chariot) festival and the rituals of the South are observed in the heart of the North. Rangji is not itself one of the 108 Divya Desams - it is too modern and was not sung by the Alvars - but it is the living bridge that makes their tradition present in Braj, a piece of the Tamil South transplanted to Krishna's own land. For the Sri Vaishnava pilgrim, it is the spiritual home-base of a Braj yatra. 

The Alvars who sang of Braj

The Alvars were twelve poet-saints, the great devotees of Vishnu whose Tamil hymns, composed across the early medieval centuries, became the Divya Prabandham.  Among them, the singers most steeped in Krishna's childhood - the very leela of Braj - were Periyalvar, who sang with a mother's tenderness of the baby Krishna's pastimes and his foster-daughter Andal, the only woman among the Alvars, who longed for Krishna as her own bridegroom and is revered as an incarnation of Bhudevi, the Earth-goddess.

Through their verses, the Krishna of Gokul and Mathura - the butter-thief, the lifter of Govardhan, the beloved of the gopis - entered the devotional heart of the Tamil South and these Braj sites took their place among the 108. To stand in Braj as a Sri Vaishnava is to stand where the Alvars' songs were born in deed.

An honest note

A born-Brajwasi owes you precision where the tradition allows it and honesty where it does not.  So:

• The two Braj Divya Desams formally counted in the 108 are Mathura and Gokul - that much is settled.

• The exact present-day temple identified with each Divya Desam (especially Mathura, given the birthplace's long and contested history) is discussed variously; the sacred sthan matters more than any single disputed structure.

• The thaayar (goddess) names and finer ritual details I will not state with false confidence - confirm them with the temple authorities or a Sri Vaishnava acharya.

• The Vrindavan-and-Govardhan extension is a tradition some hold and others don't - revere it, but know it is not the standard 108-count.

This is the Sri Vaishnava dimension of Braj told straight, neither inflated nor diminished.

For the Sri Vaishnava pilgrim - visiting Braj

A practical word for those touring the Divya Desams: 

• Mathura and Gokul are close together (Gokul is about 12-15 km from central Mathura, across/along the Yamuna), so the two Braj Divya Desams can be taken in a single focused day.

• Base yourself near Mathura or at Rangji's side of Vrindavan and make Rangji your spiritual home-base for Prabandham and darshan.

• Combine with the wider leela-land - Vrindavan and Govardhan - to honour the extended tradition.

• A local guide who understands both worlds - the Braj Krishna-bhakti and the Sri Vaishnava tradition - makes the yatra far richer; the two devotional languages meet beautifully here. 

Festivals of the tradition

Temples to combine

The Braj Divya Desams sit among the dham's greatest sites:

• Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi / Keshav Dev - the Mathura Divya Desam, Krishna's birthplace

• Gokul - the Aaypadi Divya Desam, Krishna's childhood village

• Rangji Temple - the living Sri Vaishnava hub in Vrindavan

• Govardhan Hill - the lifted hill of the extended tradition

• Shri Dwarkadhish - the Lord of Dwaraka, honoured in Mathura

• Browse all at the Famous Temples of Mathura Vrindavan hub.

Author's tips from Gurudutt - what only a local knows

• Two of the 108 are here - Mathura (Vada Madurai) and Gokul (Aaypadi); for a Divya Desam tourer, Braj is a major station, not a detour.

• Make Rangji your home-base - the living Sri Vaishnava temple in Braj, where the Prabandham is sung; pair it with the two Divya Desams.

• Honour the extended tradition - add Vrindavan and Govardhan, sung by the Alvars, even though the formal count is Mathura and Gokul.

• Don't confuse the two Gokuls - old Mahavan-Gokul and the riverside Gokul; a good guide keeps them straight.

• The two devotional worlds meet here - Tamil Sri Vaishnavism and Braj Krishna-bhakti; let a guide who knows both open it up for you.

People are surprised when a busload of Tamil pilgrims, garlanded and chanting the Prabandham, arrives in our Mathura. But why be surprised? The Lord they have sung of all their lives in their Tamil verses - the baby of Gokul, the prince of Mathura - was born here, played here, in our Braj. Two of their 108 sacred abodes are our own home. When a Sri Vaishnava and a Brajwasi stand together before Keshava Deva, two great rivers of love for the same Krishna meet. That is the secret of this place - Braj belongs to the whole of Bharat's devotion, North and South alike. - Gurudutt