Govind Kund

Tucked below the southern shoulder of Govardhan Hill near Anyor village, on the great circumambulation path of Giriraj, Govind Kund is a quiet stone-stepped water tank where one of Braj's most beloved legends is said to have reached its tender climax.

• The story begins with the famous Govardhan Leela: when the young cowherd Krishna persuaded the villagers of Vraja to honour Govardhan Hill instead of Indra, the affronted king of the gods loosed seven days and nights of thunder and rain, and Krishna answered by lifting the entire hill on one finger as an umbrella for the sheltering people, cows and calves beneath.
• At this spot, tradition holds, the drama softened into grace.
• Realising he had challenged the Divine, Indra descended to beg forgiveness, bringing with him the celestial wish-cow Surabhi.
• Here Surabhi anointed the boy with warm streams of her own milk while Indra poured sanctified waters carried in the trunk of his elephant Airavata, and together the gods hailed the child as 'Govinda' — the one who brings joy to the cows, the cowherds and the earth.
• The kund, devotees say, welled up from that milk-abhishek, and its name preserves the moment the name 'Govinda' was first spoken.
• The tank pilgrims see today is credited to Vajranabha, Krishna's great-grandson, who is remembered across Braj for reviving its sacred kunds and shrines generations after the pastimes.
• Ringed by ghats and modest riverside temples, with the low green ridge of Giriraj rising close behind, Govind Kund sits on the 21-kilometre Govardhan parikrama between Anyor and Puchari.
• Many circumambulators pause here to rest their feet, take the darshan of the water, and offer a quiet prayer before walking on toward Jatipura.
• Unlike Braj's great enclosed temples, Govind Kund is open-air, free to enter and gently unhurried outside festival days.
• Come at first light and you may share the ghats only with parikrama walkers and a few local priests; the water lies still, birdsong carries off the hill, and the air is cool.
• It is a place for slow, reflective devotion rather than spectacle — a short, meaningful halt that rewards those making the full parikrama on foot.
• For the vegetarian traveller, Braj is a blessing: the whole region is pure-vegetarian by custom, so there is no meat, egg or fish to navigate, and simple prasad, desi-ghee pedas and chhena sweets are the treats of the road.
• One honest caution, though — Mathura and Braj are among India's heaviest bhang (cannabis) belts, and roadside thandai or lassi near busy pilgrim points can be spiked with bhang.
• Buy only from clearly reputable, established pure-veg sweet shops, and politely refuse any unlabelled 'special' thandai offered on the parikrama.