Nathdwara
Nathdwara, 1908
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
(' the portal of the god '). — Walled town in the State of Udaipur, Rajputana, situated in 24° 56' N. and 73° 49 E., on the right bank of the Banas river, about 30 miles north-by-north-east of Udaipur city, and 14 miles north-west of Maoli station on the Udaipur-Chitor Railway. In 190 1 the town contained 8,591 inhabitants, more than 83 per cent, being Hindus ; but, in a place of pilgrimage like this, the population varies almost weekly. There is a combined post and telegraph office, and the Maharaj Gosain of Nathdwara maintains a dispensary. The town possesses one of the most famous Vaishnavite shrines in India, in which is an image of Krishna, popularly said to date from the twelfth century B.C. This image was placed by Vallabhacharya in a small temple at Muttra in 1495 and was moved to Gobardhan in 15 19. About 150 years later, when Aurangzeb endeavoured to root out the worship of Krishna, the descendants of Vallabhacharya left Muttra District with their images and wandered about Rajputana till 1671, when Rana Raj Singh invited three of them to Mewar. To Dwarka Nath he assigned the village of Asotiya near Kankroli, while for Sri NathjI's worship he set apart the village of Siar, to the south of which the town of Nathdwara was subsequently built. The guardian of the temple is termed Maharaj Gosain, and is the head of the Vallabhacharya sect of Brahmans ; besides this town, he holds thirty villages in different parts of Mewar, and land in Baroda, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Karauli, Kotah, Partabgarh, and other States, and a village in Ajmer District granted by Daulat Rao Sindhia. The annual income of his estates is about two lakhs, and the offerings received at the shrine are estimated at between four and five lakhs yearly. Small jewels of gold or silver, very artistically decorated with coloured enamel, are made at Nathdwara, and sold to pilgrims.
[A. Cunningham, Archaeological Survey of Northern India, vol. xxiii, pp. 99-101.]
