Traditionally it is believed that it was founded by
Shatrughna after killing
Yadava Lavana at the site of Madhuvana. According to
Ramayana it was founded by
Madhu (a man of the
Yadu tribe). Later on Madhu's son
Lavanasura was defeated by Shatrughna. , second century CE,
Mathura Museum Mathura, which lies at the centre of the cultural region of
Braj has an ancient history and is also believed to be the homeland and birthplace of Krishna, who belonged to the
Yadu dynasty. According to the
Archaeological Survey of India plaque at the
Mathura Museum, the city is mentioned in the oldest Indian epic, the
Ramayana. In the epic, the
Ikshwaku prince Shatrughna slays a demon called Lavanasura and claims the land. Afterwards, the place came to be known as
Madhuvan as it was thickly wooded, then Madhupura and later Mathura. The most important pilgrimage site in Mathura was Katra ('market place'), now referred to as
Krishna Janmasthan ('the birthplace of Krishna'). Excavations at the site revealed pottery and terracotta dating to the sixth century BCE, the remains of a large
Buddhist complex, including a monastery called Yasha Vihara of the
Gupta period, as well as
Jain sculptures of the same era.
Ancient history Archaeological excavations at Mathura show the gradual growth of a village into an important city during the
Vedic age. The earliest period belonged to the
Painted Grey Ware culture (1100–500 BCE), followed by the
Northern Black Polished Ware culture (700–200 BCE). Mathura derived its importance as a center of trade due to its location where the
northern trade route of the
Indo-Gangetic Plain met with the routes to
Malwa (central India) and the
west coast. Archaeologists have discovered a fragment of Mathura red sandstone from
Rakhigarhi - a site of
Indus Valley Civilisation dated to third millennium BCE - which was used as a grindstone; red sandstone was also a popular material for
historic period sculptures. By the sixth century BCE Mathura became the capital of the
Surasena Kingdom. It seems it never was under the direct control of the following
Shunga dynasty (2nd century BCE) as not a single archaeological remain of a Shunga presence were ever found in Mathura. which was found in
Maghera, a town from Mathura. or '"In the 116th year of Yavana hegemony" ("
Yavanarajya") The heroes were identified from a passage in the
Vayu Purana as Samkarsana,
Vasudev, Pradyumna, Samba, and Aniruddha. The English translation of the inscription read:- The Mathura inscription of the time of Mahakshatrapa
Rajuvula's son, Mahakshatrapa
Sodasa recorded erection of a
torana (gateway),
vedika (terrace) and
chatuhsala (quadrangle) at the
Mahasthana (great place) of Bhagavat Vasudeva. Several male torsos representing the Vrisni heroes were also found in a shrine in Mora dating to the time of Mahakshatrapa
Sodasa. The Kushans made Mathura one of their capitals. (Preceding and/or concurrent capitals of the Kushans included
Kapisa [modern Bagram, Afghanistan],
Purushapura [modern Peshawar, Pakistan] and
Takshasila [adjoining modern Taxila, Pakistan].) Mathuran art and culture reached its zenith during the Kushan era. Perhaps the most famous example was the artistic style known as the
Mathura school. Mathura
ateliers were most active during the epoch of the great Kushan emperors Kanishka,
Huvishka,
Vasudeva whose reign represents the Golden Age of Mathura
sculpture. During the 3rd century CE, following the decline of the Kushan Empire, the
Naga dynasty of Padmavati took control of Mathura.
Gupta Empire In the reign of
Chandragupta Vikramaditya, a magnificent temple of
Vishnu was built at the site of Katra Keshavadeva.
Harsha Empire Xuanzang, who visited the city in 634 CE, mentions it as Mot'ulo, recording that it contained twenty Buddhist monasteries and many Hindu temples. Later, he went east to
Thanesar,
Jalandhar in the eastern
Punjab, before climbing up to visit predominantly
Theravada monasteries in the
Kulu valley and turning southward again to
Bairat and then Mathura, on the
Yamuna river.
Medieval History and Islamic Invasions Early Middle Ages The famous female
Alvar saint,
Andal visualised going to a pilgrimage which began at Mathura, then proceeded to
Gokul, the
Yamuna, the pool of Kaliya,
Vrindavan,
Govardhan, and finished at
Dwarka. The eleventh century Kashmiri poet,
Bilhana visited Mathura and
Vrindavan after leaving Kashmir en route to Karnataka.
High Middle Ages The city was sacked and many of its temples destroyed by
Mahmud of Ghazni in 1018 CE. The temple built by Jajja at Katra was destroyed by the forces of
Qutubuddin Aibak, though
Feroz Tughlaq (r. 1351–88 CE) was also said to have attacked it. It was repaired and survived till the reign of
Sikandar Lodi (r. 1489–1517 CE). In the twelfth century, Bhatta Lakshmidhara, chief minister of the
Gahadavala king
Govindachandra (r. 1114–1155 CE), wrote the earliest surviving collection of verses in praise of the sacred sites of Mathura in his work Krtyakalpataru, which has been described as "the first re-statement of the theory of
Tirtha-yatra (pilgrimage)". In his Krtyakalpataru, Bhatta Lakshmidhara devoted an entire section (9) to Mathura. Later on the city was sacked again by Sikandar Lodi, who ruled the
Sultanate of Delhi from 1489 to 1517 CE. Sikandar Lodi earned the epithet of 'Butt Shikan', the 'Destroyer of Idols'.
Ferishta recorded that Sikandar Lodi was a staunch Muslim, with a passion for vandalising Hindu temples: In Tarikh-i Daudi, of 'Abdu-lla (written during the time of
Jahangir) said of Sikandar Lodi:
Vallabhacharya and
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu arrived in the Braj region, in search of sacred places that had been destroyed or lost. In
Shrikrsnashrayah, that make up the
Sodashagrantha,
Vallabha said of his age:
Late Middle Ages The
Portuguese, Father Antonio Monserrate (1536 CE-1600 CE), who was on a Jesuit mission at the Mughal Court during the times of
Akbar, visited Mathura in 1580–82, and noted that all temples built at sites associated with the deeds of
Krishna were in ruins:- The
Keshavadeva temple was rebuilt by the
Bundela Rajput Rajah
Vir Singh Deo at a cost of thirty-three lakh rupees when the gold was priced at around ₹ 10/- per
tola. And the grand structure of the temple in Mathura was regarded a "wonder of the age". The
Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, built the Shahi-Eidgah Mosque during his rule, which is adjacent to
Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi believed to be over a
Hindu temple. He also changed the city's name to Islamabad. In 1669, Aurangzeb issued a general order for the demolition of Hindu schools and temples, in 1670, specifically ordered the destruction of the Keshavadeva temple. Saqi Mustaid Khan recorded: The Muslim conquest resulted in the destruction of all
Buddhist,
Jain, and
Hindu temples and monuments in and around Mathura.
Buddhism, already in decline, never revived, and for the next four hundred years the
Jains and
Hindus were unable to erect any temples that were not sooner or later demolished. Many of the sites that had been places of religious importance were abandoned and gradually sank beneath the earth. But some of them were not forgotten, owing to the persistence of oral tradition, the refashioning of a temple into a mosque, or the presence of humble shrines, some of which housed sculptural fragments of earlier buildings. Several of them have survived as places of significance in the modern pilgrimage circuit.
Early Modern History According the biographer of Raja
Jai Singh, Atmaram, when Jai Singh was campaigning against the Jat Raja
Churaman Singh, he bathed at Radha
kund on the full moon of Kartik, went to Mathura in the month of Shravan in 1724, and performed the marriage of his daughter on
Janmashtami. He then undertook a tour of the sacred forests of
Braj, and, on his return to Mathura, founded religious establishments and celebrated
Holi.
Pilgrimage by the Family of Peshwa of Maratha Empire During the period of the expansion of
Maratha Empire, pilgrimage to the holy places in the north became quite frequent.
Pilgrims required protection on the way and took advantage of the constant movement of troops that journeyed to and back from their homeland for military purposes. That is how the practice arose of ladies accompanying military expeditions. The mother of
Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao,
Kashitai performed her famous pilgrimage for four years in the north, visiting Mathura,
Prayag,
Ayodhya,
Banaras, and other holy places. ==Religious heritage==