1 Introduction 1 The landscape The term 'Braj' does not refer to an area with clearly defined boundaries and has never been used as the official name of a political territory or administrative division. It is derived from the Sanskrit vraja, which is used in the oldest accounts of Krishna's childhood to mean 'an enclosure or station of herdsmen.' Modern pundits, however, define it as 'a place where cows roam' (vrajanti gavo yasminn iti vrajah), thereby endorsing the use of'Braj' as a name for the countryside in which Krishna grazed his cattle and in which all the sacred places associated with his early years are located. It may also be used to designate the more extensive area in which the Braj dialect of Hindi is spoken, encompassing the westernmost part of Rajasthan and districts of Uttar Pradesh as far east as Hardoi.1 Here, in accordance with popular usage, we shall use it to refer to the religious and cultural centre of this area, namely the districts of Mathura and Bharatpur and adjacent parts of other districts, including the towns of Aligarh, Hathras, Agra, and Alwar. The pilgrimage circuit of Braj covers an area stretching ten kilometres to the east and south of Mathura and nearly fifty to the west and north. The Yamuna winds its way through the eastern part of this area, flowing past Shergarh, Vrindaban, Mathura, and Gokul, separating the many sacred places on its western bank from the few that are located to the east of it. For most of the year the river is sluggish and easily fordable, but during the rainy season, and for several weeks afterwards, it is broad and turbulant, covering the wide sands on which melons and marrows are grown in the hot season, flooding the surrounding fields, and sometimes even the streets of Vrindaban and Mathura. To the west, the low-lying terrain around Kaman and Govardhan is frequently inundated during the monsoon. The water eventually drains away leaving numerous ponds that gradually evaporate during the dry months from October to June. The fact that the roads and pathways of Braj are at their worst during the monsoon, if not completely unusable, does not seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the hordes of pilgrims who come here at this time of year. 1 See D. Varma, map facing p.2 and pp.7-11. 1