Kusum Sarovar

Kusum Sarovar is a large stepped reservoir in the Braj country of Mathura district, set among temples to Radha and Krishna. It is not a temple itself, but legend makes it a meeting place of the divine couple, and its name comes from kusum, the Sanskrit word for flowers, which are said to have once floated thickly on the water.

The site began as a natural pond. The Bundela Rajput king Veer Singh Deo of Bundelkhand turned it into a built tank, and later the Jat ruler Suraj Mal restored it and replanted the garden around it. In the 18th century his son, King Jawahar Singh of Bharatpur, raised a sandstone cenotaph on the bank in memory of Suraj Mal and his two queens, Kishori and Hansiya, and this monument now dominates the view across the water.