Ter Kadamba (Ter Kadam)

Set a little apart from the bustle of Nandgaon, Ter Kadamba is a quiet grove of kadamba trees reached by a short walk or ride of roughly one and a half kilometres along the road towards Javat.

• Braj tradition explains the name from the word 'ter', meaning to call out: pilgrims are told that the boy Krishna would climb a kadamba here and call his grazing cows by name, and that the herd would come running from across the pastures at the sound of his voice.
• The result is one of Braj's gentler tirthas, a place of birdsong, dappled shade and low mud-brick walls rather than towers and crowds.
• What draws Gaudiya-Vaishnava pilgrims above all is the memory of Srila Rupa Goswami, one of the Six Goswamis whom Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sent to recover the lost holy places of Braj in the sixteenth century.
• Tradition holds that Rupa Goswami made this grove his bhajan-sthali, sitting beneath the kadambas absorbed in remembrance and composing several of his celebrated devotional works here.
• The most tenderly told pastime of the spot is of a day when his elder brother Sanatana Goswami came to visit and Rupa, an ascetic with nothing to offer, wished only to serve him sweet rice; a beautiful cowherd boy is said to have appeared with milk, rice and sugar, and only later did Rupa understand who the child had been.
• At the centre of the grove stands a small, unassuming temple and bhajan kutir maintained by resident sevaks.
• Devotees speak of a treasured manuscript copy of the Upadeshamrita (the 'Nectar of Instruction', Rupa Goswami's own eleven-verse counsel) kept here, and of the seat where he is remembered to have done his bhajan.
• The shrine is modest and easily missed by the hurried visitor, which is precisely its charm: it rewards those who come to sit, not to tick off a monument.
• Ter Kadamba is usually woven into the wider Nandgaon parikrama, close to Pavan Sarovar and Nand Bhavan, and within an easy drive of Barsana.
• Come early for the coolest air and the softest light; midday can be hot and still, and the grove has little shelter or facilities.
• For the vegetarian traveller, Braj is a naturally pure-vegetarian land and this remote grove offers only temple prasad and simple offerings, so it is wise to carry your own snacks and water.
• A firm caution, however: the wider Mathura-Braj belt is a heavy bhang (cannabis) region, and bhang-laced thandai and lassi are sold openly at roadside stalls and government theka shops, looking and sounding almost identical to the ordinary drink.
• Avoid unfamiliar thandai stalls entirely; the nearest verified pure-veg, egg-free kitchens are back in Mathura and Vrindavan.