Govardhan
The hill near Mathura that Krishna lifted to shelter the cowherds, honoured on the day after Diwali.
Also: Govardhan Puja, Annakut, Govardhan Parvat
In the Krishna stories, the cowherds of Braj once prepared an offering to Indra, the god of rain. The young Krishna persuaded them to honour Govardhan hill, which fed their cattle, instead. Angered, Indra sent a week of storms, and Krishna lifted the hill on one finger to shelter the people and their cows beneath it. Govardhan Puja, on the day after Diwali, recalls this: cows are bathed and decorated, a small hill is shaped from cow dung in courtyards, and temples offer Annakut, a mountain of food. Pilgrims walk the parikrama, a circuit of about twenty-one kilometres, around the real hill near Mathura.