Vasudeva Krishna and Mathura

 A long time ago, thousands of years ago by many estimates, a dusky child was born in a prison. The night was at it's darkest and there were thunderstorms everywhere. The parents were amazed that the child did not utter a single cry, lest the guards bring his evil uncle who was bent on killing him. The guards of the palace, alert as ever, fell in a dreamless sleep as though drugged. Even as the parents watched, longingly at the child, to hold him in their hands, the chains that were preventing them from doing so, fell off miraculously! A few more events followed which proved beyond doubt that this was God himself who had come down to rid the earth of Evil. The same Lord who described the sublime philosophy of the Vedas and Upanishads in an eternal song to his devotee Arjuna. This was the Sage Narayana who had come unto earth as one of his most beautiful and endearing avatars, Lord Krishna. Later, people built a temple to honor the birthplace of Krishna in Mathura at the prison of Kamsa. 

Dr.Meenakshi Jain's book takes us on a journey through the Upanishads, where the Lord is first mentioned as Devakiputra (Son of Devaki) Krishna. Who along with Samkarshana (Balarama), Pradyumna and Aniruddha are ranked foremost amongst the Vrishni heroes. It takes us through literary, epigraphic evidences of the existence of Vasudeva Krishna worship since antiquity. It also takes us through factual evidences on the existence of temple in Mathura since time immemorial.

And heartbreaking as it is, the book takes us through tumultuous times when the general city was subject to barbarous attacks. These barbarians put the Rakshasas of yore to shame! Muhammed Ghaznavi plundered the city and destroyed the temple. Before destroying however, the fabulous temple even moved the heartless wretch. He is said to have remarked that it would take fabulous wealth and an inordinate amount of years, perhaps centuries to build something so grand and beautiful. Yet the admiration was momentary. Plunder, rape and indiscriminate killing followed. 

Then the Ghadvalas, the caretakers of the region, rebuilt the temple. Krishna worship continued, however the doab region suffered a great setback when Ghori defeated the Ghadvala king Jaichandra, Then the temple was again destroyed by Qutubuddin. Again a temple came up, only to be destroyed by the bigoted Sikandar Lodi. It was during the time of Jehangir that Bir Singh Bundela built a magnificent temple of Keshavadeva spending 33 Lakh rupees during that time. 

Then came the emperor of bigots : the monstrous Aurangzeb. By a general proclamation he went about destroying the grand temple and building a Mosque in it's place. Saqi Mustad describes the event with great enthusiasm that a temple of idolatry was destroyed.  To add insult to injury, the idol was broken and it was placed beneath the steps of a mosque in Agra, to be trod upon by the faithful!

Mathura was again plundered by Ahmed Shah Abdali. The Afghans were brutes with one pointed religious bigotry. They killed men, women, children as Ahmed Shah had declared a cash prize for every head of an infidel brought before him! It is heart wrenching to see the description of the destruction of the city.

The Mughal empire fell apart  after Aurangzeb's death and the mighty Marathas won Mathura and Vrindavan during the battle of Govardhan. The Maratha's declared the land as Nazul (Government Land) and the mosque during this time fell in disuse. The muzzein supposedly left the place looking for employment elsewhere. The land was then acquired by the East India company who sold it to Raja Patnimal the king of Banaras. 

From the 1800s, there have been repeated attempts by some parties to wrest the entire land of Katra Keshavadeva temple as Idgah property. Even a British judge called them hardened Litigants. 

To me reading the book was a revelation. A lot of leftist historians and apologists of Islamic invaders claim that the invaders merely destroyed temples to loot the money present there.

Even if we assume this is correct, why were certain parties like the Waqf trying to illegally claim the land of Katra Keshavadeva as Idgah land. Why are they so hell bent on preventing a temple in a land which is revered by Hindus as the birth place of Krishna. They have several mosques, why did they take temple land illegally? It appears as though the attempt is to not let a place of Idolatory and Shirk be built again. The thinking appears to be, it would undo all the "righteous acts of piety" of Aurangzeb and other invaders. It is this thought process that was present before and is even present now in some of my countrymen that hurts me the most. This unwillingness to right historical wrongs. It can only stem from a thought process and ideology of hate, where people who do not follow it are deemed unworthy of living. That we let such hateful intentions flourish in our society is like the act of committing suicide. That in this world and age where people are more rational and there is information freely available, such people are allowed to thrive in our society is really tragic!