=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.[4.20.60] =Seven Forms of Krishna.=—The seven statues of Kanhaiya were brought together by the high-priest Balba, who established the festival of the Annakuta. They remained in the same sanctuary until the time of Girdhari, the grandson of Balba, who having seven sons, gave to each a rupa or statue, and whose descendants continue in the office of priest. The names and present abodes of the gods are as follows: Nathji, the god, or Gordhannath, god of the mount Nathdwara. 1. Nonita Nathdwara. 2. Mathuranath Kotah. 3. Dwarkanath Kankroli.[4.20.61] 4. Gokulnath, or Gokulchandrama Jaipur. 5. Yadunath Surat. 6. Vitthalnath[4.20.62] Kotah. 7. Madan Mohana Jaipur. Nathji is not enumerated amongst the forms; he stands supreme. Nonita, or Nonanda, the juvenile Kanhaiya, has his altar separate, though close to Nathji. He is also styled Balamukund, ‘the blessed child,’[4.20.63] and is depicted as an infant with _pera_[4.20.64] or comfit-ball in his hand. This image, which was one of the penates of a former age, and which, since the destruction of the shrines of [549] Krishna by the Islamites, had lain in the Yamuna, attached itself to the sacerdotal zone (Janeo) of the high-priest Balba, while he was performing his ablutions, who, carrying it home, placed it in a niche of the temple and worshipped it: and Nonanda yet receives the peculiar homage of the high-priest and his family as their household divinity. Of the second image, Mathuranath, there is no particular mention: it was at one time at Khamnor in Mewar, but is now at Kotah. Balkrishna, the third son, had Dwarkanath, which statue, now at Kankroli in Mewar, is asserted to be the identical image that received the adoration of Raja Amaraka, a prince of the solar race who lived in the Satya Yuga, or silver age. The ‘god of the mount’ revealed himself in a dream to his high-priest, and told him of the domicile of this his representative at Kanauj. Thither Balba repaired, and having obtained it from the Brahman, appointed Damodardas Khatri to officiate at his altar.