Place · sacred river · India
Yamunā
The 1,376-kilometre river rising at Yamunotri in Garhwal and flowing through Delhi, Mathura, Agra and Prayagraj to merge with the Ganga at the Triveni Sangam. The second-longest tributary of the Ganga and the darker twin of the river-goddess pair, Yamuna is in the Vedas the daughter of Surya and the sister of Yama. Her Braj stretch at Mathura-Vrindavan is Krishna's playground. The Delhi reach from Wazirabad to Okhla runs so polluted that 22 kilometres of it carry no ecological life — the dirtiest stretch of any major Indian river.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- River mythology; Krishna lore
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — The physical place or feature is identifiable; its sacred origin or association belongs to a textual or living tradition.
- Location
- 27.200, 78.000 (approximate)
Connections (1)
- River flowMathurā
The Yamuna descends from Yamunotri through Delhi into the Braj plain, and at Mathura and Vrindavan its banks become the stage for Krishna's life — the bathing ghats, the rasa groves, the crossing on the night he was carried to Gokul. The river is the thread stitching a Himalayan source to a devotional landscape six hundred kilometres downstream. It is now also among the most polluted stretches of water in India, which the Braj temples have to work around daily.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Yamuna”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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