It is a common practice in Hinduism to offer food to idols of God. This is called bhog. While bhog is offered to all deities, the one offered to Sri Krishna is unique because it contains 56 types of food items. This is popularly called ‘chhappan bhog’, where chhappan means fifty-six. While different sources give a different list of what the individual dishes should be, they are all unanimous on the number 56. There is a story behind this.

When Sri Krishna was a young cowherd in Vrindavana, the residents used to celebrate a festival towards the end of the rainy season to honour Indra. He was the god of the clouds and of the waters. He sent clouds laden with moisture from which rain fell on the earth, helping grains and grasses grow, on which humans and cows survived. The cowherds used to hold this festival to thank Indra for the rains.

Krishna argued that they were cowherds, not cultivators of land or merchants. Their only wealth was cows, which grazed on the Govardhana Mountain. Thus, a proper divinity to be worshipped by cowherds would be Govardhana. What did cowherds have to do with Indra? The people of Vrindavana agreed wholeheartedly and offered worship to Govardhana and circumambulated it.  

Indra became extremely angry at the lack of worship for him. He sent down large clouds and a fearsome storm to Vrindavana. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and an incessant rain poured. The cows and cowherds of Vrindavana became greatly oppressed by the rain.

Soon, there was flooding everywhere, and if nothing was done quickly, the people and cows would drown. Krishna lifted the Govardhana Mountain in one hand and asked all the cowherds to enter beneath it, with their cows, for shelter from the rain.

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