Witches, Villians and Angry Gods: India's 'Dark Tourism' Boom
Words by Azania Imtiaz Khatri-Patel
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Witches, Villians and Angry Gods: India's 'Dark Tourism' Boom by Azania Imtiaz Khatri-Patel
“Have you heard the story of pagal baba?” the young man rowing a boat across the Yamuna river asks Gaurav Sharma, an Indian travel vlogger. The rower goes on to tell Sharma about the ‘pagal baba’ or madman who lost his sight and hearing along with his sanity after spending a night in the forest of Nidhivan in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh.
This urban legend is among the many associated with Nidhivan, a forest considered one of the holiest sites within Vaishnavite Hinduism. The story goes that within the tulsi-laden forests of Mathura, Krishna- one of the incarnations of Vishnu, takes physical form in the late night hours. The trees of the forest turn into gopis (female cowherds). Local authorities and priests of the nearby temple are firm on asking all devotees and tourists to head away from the forest well before sunset- because if mortal eyes catch a glimpse of the divine sight- they will be cursed, much like the pagal baba to lose sense and sanity.
Therefore while during the daytime the forest (which is surrounded by settlements and concrete houses on all sides) is a spot of worship for devotees of Krishna, when evening falls - it is deserted and guarded fiercely by local believers.
Nidhivan is not the only famous tourist site in India that has associations with cautionary lore. Rajasthan's famed Bhangarh fort is locked up after sunset - with locals believing that the site is haunted by the ghosts of a civilization that lived within the fortress and were killed after being cursed by a practitioner of black magic.