Nathdwara

Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 4 narrates the story of gaudiya vaishnava sannyasi madhavendra puri who was visited by Shri Gopalji (original name of Shri Nathji) in vrindavan and given a pot of milk. Later he appeared to him in a dream and instructed him to excavate his image from a jungle and install it in a temple on govardhan hill. The installation was accompanied by Annakuta ceremony, a huge feast offered to the Lord. His worship was taken over by devotees in the vallabha sampradaya shortly after srila madhavendra puri"s disappearance.

This modest temple attracts Krishna devotees from all over the world including various parts of India, but is significantly important to the Gujarati people of India, thereby making it one of the wealthiest temples of India. The town is often called Shrinathji rather than its original name, Nathdwara. During any major Hindu festival it is common to see enormous crowds packing the entire town and the temple complex.Shrinathji was evidently quite popular with other medieval devotees as well as there were gaudiya preachers who founded Shrinathaji temples in present-day Pakistan (Dera Ghazi Khan). Shrinathji was even worshiped as far away as Russia (in the lower Volga region) and other places on the Central Asian trade routes. Tradition holds that he will one day return to Govardhana.

Nathdwara weather is of an extreme type. The climate of Nathdwara experiences hot summers. The average temperature in the summer season falls in the range of 42.2° C (max) to 27.3° C (min). The climatic conditions of Nathdwara, Rajasthan in the winter season are on the colder side. The average temperature is somewhere around 27.0° C (max) to 9.7° C (min). The monsoon season experiences high humidity and scanty rainfall, around 31 cm. The best time to visit Nathdwara is during the period of September to February.

Nathdwara had a population of 37,007. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Nathdwara has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 65%. In Nathdwara, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

The Flora and Fauna in Rajasthan is sparse as expected in the desert land. Most of the forest is of dry deciduous type. It has a small range of slow-growing thorny trees, shrubs and grasses that has adapted itself to the harsh conditions.Other shrubs like the leafless khair (Capparis decidua), ak (Calotropis procera) and thor (Euphorbia caduca) also have various uses.

Khair provides strong and durable wood that is resistant to white ants and lastly also produces a fruit that is edible both fresh and preserved. The other two – ak and thor secretes a juice that is taken as a cough balm while the leaves of thor known as papri is eaten as a vegetable.The nilgai or the bluebull or bluecow are abundant on the open plains and in the foothills of the Aravalli. The blue cow is actually not a cow it is an antelope, the largest in India.