Krishna: From Mathura to Dwarka

Krishna is born in a prison cell where his parents, Devaki and Vasudeva, are held by his maternal uncle Kamsa, who has arranged to kill all of Devaki's children as soon as they are born. Vasudeva secretly carries the infant across the Yamuna. Tradition places the cell in the Garbha Griha shrine of today's Krishna Janmasthan complex, where a marble pavilion and an underground prison cell were built. The present temple was inaugurated on 6 September 1958.

Location precision: Tradition, not proof, marks the birth cell; the pin marks the Janmasthan temple complex.

Visitor guidance: The Garbha Griha shrine, marking the believed birth cell, is inside the temple complex.

Gokul is where Krishna performs most of his childhood lila. The legends cast him as a mischievous boy whose pranks earn him the nickname Makhan Chor, the butter thief. Govind Ghat, the main ghat of Gokul, is a quiet place to picture the stories of the young cowherd god.

Location precision: The legend names Gokul but no single spot in it; the pin marks the town.

Visitor guidance: Govind Ghat is the main ghat of Gokul.

Vrindavan takes its name from groves of holy basil, and it is believed that Krishna spent part of his childhood here. Its great story is the Rasa lila: Krishna plays his flute and the gopis, the milkmaids, come to him at once. Among the town's many temples, Banke Bihari was built in 1862, after the image of Banke-Bihari was discovered in Nidhivan by Swami Haridas.

Location precision: The dance is a legend of the riverbanks with no fixed spot; the pin marks Banke Bihari Temple as one landmark of Vrindavan.

Visitor guidance: Banke Bihari is one of the many temples of Vrindavan.

In the legends, Krishna lifts the Govardhana hill to protect the people of Vrindavana from devastating rains and floods. The low ridge itself is real: about 8 km long and, at its highest, 100 feet above the surrounding land. Krishna and his brother Balarama are said to have grazed cows on its slopes. The buildings and other structures on the hill date from the sixteenth century.

Visitor guidance: A parikarma path runs around the hill.

After Kamsa's death, Krishna leads the Yadavas to the newly built city of Dwaraka. Legend says Krishna built Dwarka on land reclaimed from the sea. The Dwarkadhish temple, dedicated to him, is a five-storied building supported by 72 pillars. Archaeological findings suggest an original temple here from 200 BCE at the earliest.

Location precision: Tradition links the Gujarat city to Krishna's capital, and the temple is the later building of that tradition; the epic gives no exact address.

Visitor guidance: The temple stands in Dwarka city, Gujarat.

In the Mahabharata, Krishna becomes Arjuna's charioteer for the Kurukshetra War and delivers the sermon of the Bhagavad Gita. Hindu tradition places this at Jyotisar in Kurukshetra: Adi Shankara, an 8th-century scholar, identified it as the exact place. A local banyan tree is traditionally considered an offshoot of the original tree under which Krishna preached.

Location precision: Tradition, not the epic itself, locates the sermon at Jyotisar; the battlefield covers a wide area.

Visitor guidance: The banyan tree linked to the sermon stands at the Jyotisar site in Kurukshetra.

Gandhari curses Krishna: "thou shalt be the slayer of thy own kinsmen!" Years later, a hunter named Jara mistakes Krishna's partly visible foot for a deer from a distance and releases an arrow. Krishna forgives Jara and dies. Bhalka Tirtha, a Hindu temple in Veraval on Gujarat's western coast, marks the place where this is believed to have happened.

Location precision: Tradition marks the spot; the pin is the Bhalka temple.

Visitor guidance: The temple stands in Veraval, Gujarat.