The Yamuna River flows past Delhi and past the sacred sites of Mathura and BRINDAVAN and meets the GANGES at ALLAHABAD (Prayag). The deity Yamuna is seen as a GODDESS mounted on a tortoise, carrying a blue lotus, a fly whisk, and a water pot. (A beautiful sandstone statue of her is found at Aihole in Karnataka, dating from the seventh cen-tury.) Sometimes Yamuna is understood to be the sister of the god of death, YAMA. One of the greatest Indian festivals, the KUMBHA MELA, is celebrated at the conjunction of the Yamuna and the Ganges.
Further reading: David L. Haberman, River of Love in an Age of Pollution: The Yamuna River of Northern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006); Sudhakar Pandey, Ganga and Yamuna in Indian Art and Literature (Chandigarh: Indra Prakashan, 1984).
Encyclopedia of Hinduism. A. Jones and James D. Ryan. 2007.