The Grandest Braj Ki Holi Celebration In India - Holi In Nandgaon - Journey & Experience
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The Next Morning, we woke up and prepared for one of the most intense experience of Holi in Nandgaon
Background - Holi In Nandgaon
After Barsana, the Nandgaon village gets colored the next day. Nandgaon is the place where krishna was brought up during his adolescence. And after they went to Barsana to color and play Holi with Radha and her Sakhis, the next day Radha and the other natives of Barsana went to Nandgaon to play Holi with Krishna and his Sakhas.
And to this day, people from Barsana go to Nandgaon the next day, to play Holi and in return the females of Nandgaon playfully beat them up with sticks.
The Holi of nandgaon is the most fierce and people and countless photographers and artists arrive here to shoot this auspicious setting, from all over the world.
Story - 12th Of March 2022 - Nandgaon
It was 60 km away from Vrindavan i.e from our rented accomodation. We got ready and fetched an autorikshaw to Nandgaon from Madan Mohan Chowk. It took us 2 hours to reach there.
And again public transport leaves you at a distance and you have to travel on foot from there.
We started walking towards the Nand Baba Temple where the whole envent was scheduled to take place.
Nandgaon was filled in color and music. And the crowds were more than Barsana moving towards the temple, dancing and spilling colors simultaneously.
Taking a couple of turns, we had to move through the narrow streets of Nandgaon, all were decorated and village natives stood at the edges with colored water and abir gulal, their eyes continously searching for anyone from Barsana to bathe them in colors.
After walking slowly and having fun for almost an hour we reached the temple.
Here's how the village looked from the above.
Entering inside, the vibes of Holi could be felt and groups of people singing and dancing everywhere gave us goosebumps.
Here are the people dressed in tradtional attire for the festival of Holi
The temple premises was large, and both the ground as well first floor was full of people. Clouds of colours could be seen often rising up in the air at different places inside the temple.
The dome was huge and breathtaking in particular. You could easily be lost in this temple. Lol. But today marked the presence of hunderds of thousands of devotees, who came here to enjoy, take part in austerities and experience the grand Holi of Nandgaon
After being astonished by the scale of celebration and the vibe of this place, we went upstairs and it was most amazing view you could ever see. Swarms of people, clouds and waves of colors, dancing groups, circling couples and the mild fragrance of abir gulal filling up the air.
We enjoyed and roamed around, wandered there for couple of hours in the afternoon, meanwhile I also clicked some portraits of surprising appearances I could find.
After a few hours, the surroundings started metamorphising in an altogether different form. The crowds assembled near the main door to throw colors in the wecome of people from Barsana. And in a matter of few minutes the whole atmosphere turned into a ravaged unending war of colors.
The Chaps who came from Barsana sat down and the traditional songs, rituals and austerities began. All them were being sprinkled with yellow color while the sacred hymns and traditional songs echoed the place.
After some rites and rituals, it felt like the whole world turned into a giant rainbow as we saw. Only colors everywhere.
Multiple drones were whizzing in the sky and everyone was trying to capture these moments and turn them into memories forever.
The experience was one a kind, at a time there was so much color in air that It blinded me.
Here's how the whole temple looked like.
The red atmostphere and orange shades. Felt like we had landed on mars.
After having crazy fun there we came out to the Rangeeli Chowk as the Lathmar procession takes place there.
The males of Barsana were ready with the shields and the females of Nandgaon with sticks.
The folk songs were being sung in unison, dedicated to the auspicious festival of Holi and the ladies showered the beating of sticks while the men endured them with shields.
Some people object this tradition - the teasing of females and beating up with sticks.
But the village natives are unapologetic about it. They feel, some can never understand the essence of its roots. And this is all playful carrying the feel of love, devotion and legacy they are bestowed with, by being born at the holy place of either Barsana or Nandgaon.
Experiencing this rich heritage and culture. I felt blessed to be a part of such a diversity.
Submerged in the chit chats of experiences and taking the memories of wonderful day spent, we went back to vrindavan. It was a 2 hours ride again.
So this was my second day at Braj Ki Holi
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