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Rang

Birthplace of Krishna, home of Holi

Mathura

Krishna's birthplace celebrates Holi for more than a week, with processions, music and coloured powder.

Krishna Temple, Mathura, India
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Mathura is holi yellow

Mathura, on the Yamuna, is honoured by Hindus as the birthplace of Krishna. Yellow is his colour: he is described as wearing a yellow garment, the pitambara. With nearby Vrindavan, Barsana and Nandgaon it forms Braj, where Holi lasts well over a week. In Barsana the festival opens with Lathmar Holi, in which women playfully beat men with sticks while the men shield themselves. In Mathura a large procession moves through the old city, and colour is thrown at the Dwarkadhish temple and along the river ghats. The city also has an older colour. Its mottled red sandstone was carved into Buddhist, Jain and Hindu sculpture about two thousand years ago, now seen in the local museum.

Holi yellow#F2C218Gulal pink#E8457CRed sandstone#B5553CPeacock blue#1F6F8B

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Mathura

AbirA coloured powder used in Hindu rituals and the Holi festivalYellowA primary colour between green and orange, seen in sunlight, leaves, and pigments
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Mathura" on Wikipedia. If you know Mathura and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
🇮🇳 The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.🇮🇳 The Pink CityJaipurThe walled city wears a dusty terracotta pink, first painted on for a royal visit in 1876 and kept ever since.🇮🇳 The White CityUdaipurWhite palaces and whitewashed houses stand around lakes in the Aravalli hills of southern Rajasthan.🇮🇳 The Golden CityJaisalmerA fort and town built of yellow sandstone that glows like honey at sunset, deep in the Thar Desert.🇮🇳 City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.🇮🇳 Town of Holi coloursVrindavanFor Holi the temple town of Krishna's childhood fills with clouds of pink, yellow and green powder.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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