Jaipur: The Shrinathji temple at Nathdwara is not only a place of religious importance but also a tourist's delight.
Located in Rajasthan, at a distance of 48 km from Udaipur on the Aravalli hills is the town of Nathdwara which Gujaratis frequent regularly for paying their respects. The Shrinathji diety is Lord Krishna and Lord Krishna idol is seen with his one hand lifting the Govardhan parbat.
This form of Lord Krishna is connected with the mythological story of how he lifted the Govardhan parbat when the people of that village faced heavy rains. The temple is well funded by the industrialists of India. It is also known as the haveli of Lord Krishna.
The temple is generally open to the visitors for around 4-5 'darshan' starting with the 'mangla' at 4.30-5 am, shrungar, gwala, rajbhog, utthapan and shayan darshan ending at 6pm in the evening. A large number of devotees flock the temple and there is no place to stand during weekdays or weekends giving you only a few minutes to see the idol of Lord Krishna.
An ideal time to visit the temple is early morning 6am, when there are vegetable vendors, milkmen, fruit vendors, flower shops opening up early and selling their products to the tourists. Beautiful roses, mogras, jasad flowers are seen occupying people's hands as they go to the temple in their new clothes.
The temple is also rich with mithai and prasad, and the 'chappanbhog' aarti is one of a kind here. 'Chappanbhog aarti has 56 varieties of food items offered to the Lord and after that it is distributed as prasad to the devotees. The most popular among these food items are the 'magas', 'boondi ladoos', 'mohanthal' and 'koprapaak'.
Ideally, the best time to travel to Nathdwara is during the winter months from October to February.
