Krishna Janmasthan Temple Complexਕ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਨ ਜਨਮਸਥਾਨ ਮੰਦਰ

What is Krishna Janmasthan?

Krishna Janmasthan is a Hindu temple complex in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, in the heart of the Braj region. It stands at Katra Keshavdeva, on a plot of 13.37 acres that Hindus believe is the exact place where Krishna was born. The site takes its name from the Keshavdeva temple: Krishna, the deity of the complex, is worshipped here under the name Keshavdev. Three main shrines make up the complex today. The first is the Keshavdeva temple itself, dedicated to Krishna. The second is the Garbhagriha, a small, dimly lit chamber that marks the prison cell where tradition says Krishna was born, with the birthplace marked by a stone slab. The third is the Bhagavata Bhavan, a larger temple dedicated to the Shrimad Bhagavata, where the presiding deities are Radha and Krishna. All three are managed by the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan, the trust that rebuilt the complex in the 20th century.

Is Krishna Janmasthan the exact birthplace of Krishna?

The claim rests on religious tradition rather than on documents or excavations. According to the tradition, Krishna was born to Devaki and her husband Vasudeva inside a prison cell. Kansa, the king of Mathura and Devaki's maternal uncle, had locked the couple up after a prophecy warned him that Devaki's child would bring his death. The same tradition credits Krishna's great-grandson Vajranabh with building the first temple on the spot. Excavations at Katra Keshavdeva have found pottery and terracotta going back to the 6th century BCE, along with Jain sculptures and a large Buddhist complex, so the ground was a sacred site long before any standing temple. A Vaishnava shrine may have stood here as early as the first century CE. None of this can confirm a birth, and no excavation could: the birthplace is a matter of faith, and the temple keeps it as such.

Two thousand years of destruction and rebuilding

Few Indian temple sites have been built and demolished so many times. The Gupta emperor Chandragupta II rebuilt the complex in 400 CE, and a late 8th-century inscription records donations to the site by the Rashtrakutas. In 1017 or 1018, Mahmud of Ghazni plundered Mathura, burning its temples and carrying away gold and silver images in a train of a hundred camels. A Sanskrit stone inscription from the site records that in 1150 a man named Jajja, possibly a vassal of the Gahadavala king, raised a new Vishnu temple here that was, in the inscription's words, brilliantly white and touching the clouds.

The cycle continued in the medieval period. Delhi Sultan Sikandar Lodi had Mathura's temples destroyed in the 16th century and restricted Hindu worship in the city. Then, in the more tolerant reign of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, Raja Veer Singh Deva Bundela of Orchha built a grand octagonal temple of red sandstone in 1618 at an enormous cost. The French traveller Tavernier, who saw it in 1650, and the Italian Manucci both described its splendour, and the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh patronised it. But Aurangzeb ordered the temple destroyed in 1670 and raised the Shahi Eidgah mosque on its raised plinth. The mosque still stands there today.

The modern rebuilding began after the British auctioned the 13.37 acres of Katra in 1815; a Banaras banker, Raja Patnimal, bought the land, and his descendants kept it undivided. In 1935 the Allahabad High Court ruled for Rai Krishna Das in two suits over ownership. On 7 February 1944, the educationist Madan Mohan Malaviya acquired the land for Rs 13,000 with the help of the industrialist Jugal Kishore Birla. Birla then registered the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan trust on 21 February 1951, and entrusted construction to the philanthropist Jaidayal Dalmia. Work began in October 1953 and finished in February 1982, funded by the Dalmia, Birla and Goenka families, among others.

The three shrines inside the complex

The Keshavdeva temple was built by Ramkrishna Dalmia in memory of his mother, Jadiadevi Dalmia. Construction started on 29 June 1957 and the temple was inaugurated on 6 September 1958 by Hanuman Prasad Poddar. It stands south of the Shahi Eidgah. The Garbhagriha shrine is the emotional centre of the complex: a marble pavilion and an underground chamber built where the prison cell is believed to have been, set against the rear wall of the Eidgah. Near it stands a small shrine to the eight-handed goddess Yogmaya.

The Bhagavata Bhavan, dedicated to the Shrimad Bhagavata, is the largest of the three. Construction began on 11 February 1965 and the deities were installed on 12 February 1982. It holds five shrines. The main one houses a six-foot pair of Radha and Krishna. To the right stand Balarama, Subhadra and Jagannatha; to the left, Rama, Lakshmana and Sita. A Garuda pillar, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Hanuman, Durga and a Shivalinga complete the shrines. The assembly hall's ceiling, walls and pillars carry frescoes of Krishna's life, and the text of the Bhagavad Gita is engraved on copper plates along the circumambulation path. Statues of Malaviya and Birla in the complex honour their part in the rebuilding. Southeast of the temple lies Potra Kund, also called Pavitra Kund, a large stepped water tank where tradition says the newborn Krishna had his first bath; Mahadji Scindia built its steps in 1782 and his descendants restored them in 1850.

Why do a mosque and a temple share the same plot?

Because the mosque was built on top of the old temple's ground. In 1670 Aurangzeb had the Keshavdeva temple destroyed and raised the Shahi Eidgah on its raised plinth, and the mosque and the temple complex have stood side by side ever since. Visitors to the complex see the Eidgah's domes rising beside the temple gate, a reminder of the site's layered past. In 1968 the temple trust and the Eidgah committee signed a compromise agreement dividing the land and its management; that agreement was later challenged in court after 1992, and the dispute continues in the legal record. The facts of the shared plot are part of the site's history, and the entry states them as such, without taking sides.

When should you visit?

Krishna Janmashtami, the celebration of Krishna's birth, is the biggest day of the year at the complex. The temple is lit up, and the celebrations, devotional songs and dances run through the night. Radhashtami, Holi and Diwali are the other great festivals, drawing crowds from across Braj, and Mathura's Holi is famous well beyond the region. Mathura lies about 150 km south of Delhi and is easy to reach by road and rail, so the complex has become one of the most visited temples in India. A museum, library, guest house and shops inside the complex serve the steady stream of pilgrims.