A small Radha Krishna temple ( late Mughal Era) made by a noble from jhajjhar and called Jhajjharwala Mandir was mentioned by Maulvi Basheeruddin Ahmed in 1919. He describes the beautiful black Idol and the small steeple.
I Hunted high and low with Ashok Mathur who took me on a tour of the temples of Shahjahanabad but couldn’t find it.
During an way morning walk in Chipiwalan when I was exploring each Radha Krishna temple to find this, I asked an old gentleman about it. Oh that’s the Iskon temple he told me. I had already visited it with Ashok without knowing it’s prior history.
It’s quite a big complex and it’s from here that the Iskon founder started his journey.
Went there and found the beautiful black Krishna image that Basheeruddin Ahmed had described.
It is now enclosed in a much larger complex.
Sometimes luck plays a big part.
#ShahjahanabadTheLivingCity
Paridhi David Massey adds:
My family is a member here since the temple was acquired by ISKCON. The temple houses on the first floor the room where Srila Prabhupada, the leader and Founder Acharya of ISKCON lived before he left for the west. The room upstairs had a tiny kitchen, a balcony (now covered), his kitchen stove, utensils, his typewriter, harmonium, manuscripts of typed and handwritten books and his clothes found when the room was finally opened few years back. The Thakur Vigraha that you see in the picture have been served by Prabhupada himself when he lived here. The older generation of Chippiwara share anecdotes of an old Bengali sadhu clad in orange and chanting the Harinaama to be seen walking in the lanes of purani dilli. Prabhupada took help from from a small boy who often typed his manuscripts for him. That little boy who grew in Chippiwara lives in Delhi with his family. We met him and he shared that before leaving for the west Prabhupada gave him a brass golden thakur vigraha of Radha and Krishna. His family serves the vigraha at their family home now in New Delhi.
This is a lovely temple in the womb of Purani dilli and is laiden with stories of a newer wave of religious fervour germinating in the city.
Thank you for sharing this. For me it brought back so many memories! 😊😊
