Govind Dev Ji Temple is situated in the City Palace complex of Jaipur in Rajasthan, India. The temple is a famous tourist spot in Rajasthan along with high religious value.
The Hindu temple Govind Dev Ji is considered to be one of the famous temples in Rajasthan, India. The temple is devoted to Govind Dev Ji or Lord Krishna and is one of the 7 temples of Thakur of Vrindavan that includes temples of Shri Bankey Bihari Ji, Shri Govind Dev Ji, Shri Radhavallabh Ji and four others. The murti or the idol of the deity was brought to Jaipur from vrindavan by Raja Sawai Jai Singh II who was the founder of Jaipur. But the temple was constructed by Akbar, the Mughal Emperor. It is also believed that the idol of Lord Krishna in the temple look exactly like the form Krishna took during his incarnation on Earth.
Originally the idol belonged to one of the disciples of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Rupa Goswami. Also the legend says that the idol is called as Bajrakrit because it was created by the great grandson of Lord Krishna Bajranabh. The temple is one of the important temples for Vaishnavites or followers of Krishna outside Vrindavan. Here in the temple the deity is offered aarti and bhog seven times a day when unveiled for Darshan. On daily basis a thousand numbers of devotees visit this temple and on the occasion of Janmashtami even a larger number of people visit the temple. During aarti, the devotees can have a darshan of the lord.
History of Govind Dev Ji Temple Jaipur
Lord Govind Dev Ji, one of the forms of Lord Krishna, is the main deity of the Kachwaha Dynasty of Amber and is associated with the rich history of Jaipur and its rulers.
It is said that the original Govind Dev Ji idol was in a temple in Vrindavan, which was excavated around 450 years ago from Goma Teela in Vrindavan by a disciple of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Rupa Goswami.
Coming to know about the existence of the temple, the then Maharaja of Amer, Sawai Man Singh along with the Mughal Emperor Akbar, built a huge temple in Vrindavan in 1590 A. D. The red sandstone used to build the temple was donated by Akbar which was intended to be used to build the Agra Fort. Additionally, the emperor also gave away around 135 acres of land for livestock and feed.+
During the 17th century, the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb was on a spree razing off Hindu temples and destroying the idols. Around the same time, the idol of Govind Ji was taken care of by Shri Shiv Ram Goswami in Vrindavan. In pursuit of saving the idols, he kept transferring the idols from Vrindavan to Kama in Bharatpur to Radhakund to Govindpura in Sanganer.
Since Lord Govind Dev Ji was the principal deity of the ruling dynasty, the then ruler of Amer, Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh took onus of providing protection to the idol and placed it in Amer Valley which was later named as Kanak Vrindavan in 1714 AD. However, they could not place it out in open the reason being, Amer served the Mughal court during that time and could not afford to have a stand- off with the Mughals.
The idol of Govind Ji was first brought from Amer to Jaipur and placed at the Surya Mahal in 1735 AD, by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh after he received instructions in his dreams from the Lord himself to do so. The Maharaja enshrined the deity at Suraj Mahal as he thought the palace belonged to Lord Govind Ji and he himself moved his residence to a new palace and named it Chandra Mahal. The Chandra Mahal was built in such a fashion that the idol of Govind Ji would be at his direct sight from the palace.
The Suraj Mahal was later renamed and is known by its present name, Govind Ji Temple.
Legend behind the idol at Govind Dev Ji Temple Jaipur
Legend has it that around over 5500 years ago, the great grandson of Lord Shri Krishna, the 13 years old Bajranabh wanted to make the exact idol of the Lord after getting appropriate instructions from his grand- mother about the Lord’s original looks.
The first idol that he made had only the feet resembling that of Lord Krishna. This first idol got named Lord ‘Madan Mohan Ji’, and is enshrined in Karauli, Rajasthan. Brajranabh made a second idol wherein only the chest resembled exactly to Lord Krishna and this idol was given the name Lord ‘Gopi Nath Ji’, and is enshrined in Purani Basti, Jaipur, Rajasthan.