Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s2.t1.4

v2.c27.s2.t1.4

Interruption of Worship. — The predatory system which reduced these countries to a state of the most degraded anarchy, greatly diminished the number of pilgrimages to Nathdwara [548]; and the gods of Vraj had sufficient prescience to know that they could guard neither their priests nor followers from the Pathan and Mahratta, to whom the crown of the god, or the nathna (nose-jewel) of Radha, would be alike acceptable : nor would they have scrupled to retain both the deities and priests as hostages for such imposition as they might deem within their means. Accordingly, of late years, there had been no congress of the gods of Vraj, who remained fixtures on their altars till the halcyon days of A.D. 1818 permitted their liberation.²