Every spring, before Holi, millions of pilgrims walk to the small town of Khatu in Rajasthan, many of them barefoot and carrying saffron flags, to see the head of Barbarika. He was Bhima's grandson, a warrior who could have ended the Mahabharata war with three arrows, and who gave his head to Krishna when Krishna asked for it. Krishna gave him his own name, Shyam, and promised he would be worshipped in the age to come.
Also calledKhatu Shyam MelaPhalgun MelaLakkhi MelaShyam Baba ka Mela
Next, in 2027Thursday 18 March 2027
15 to 21 March 2027
Prime godKhatu Shyam
with 2 more
WhereKhatu in Sikar district, Rajasthan, with pilgrims from all of North India and the Marwari towns across the country
How longAbout a week (five days at the peak)
The bright fortnight of Phalguna, about ten days before Holi. The fair runs for several days and peaks on the eleventh, Amalaki Ekadashi, and the twelfth
Why it is kept
Khatu is a small town in the dry country of Sikar, about eighty kilometres north-west of Jaipur. For most of the year it is quiet. In the bright fortnight of Phalguna, in the week before Holi, it takes in pilgrims in their millions, most of them walking, all of them coming to see a head.
The head is Barbarika's. He was the son of Ghatotkacha and the grandson of the Pandava Bhima, and he had three arrows from the Goddess that could find and mark every target in a battlefield. He came to Kurukshetra having promised his mother he would fight for the side that was losing.
Krishna saw what that would mean. Whichever side Barbarika joined would start to win, and he would have to change sides, and change again, until only he was left. So Krishna came to him disguised as a Brahmin and asked him for a gift, and when Barbarika promised, he asked for his head. Barbarika gave it, and asked only to see the war. Krishna set the head on a hill, gave Barbarika his own name, Shyam, and promised that in the age to come, whoever called on him would be heard.
People come to Khatu for that promise. Barbarika gave himself up for the side that was losing, so he is Haare ka Sahara, the support of those who have lost. Traders come before the new year's accounts, families come with a child or a wedding, and many come because nothing else has worked.
Who is worshipped
K
Prime god
Khatu Shyam
Barbarika, son of Ghatotkacha and grandson of Bhima, whose head is worshipped at Khatu as Shyam Baba. He is called Sheesh ke Dani, the giver of his head, Teen Baan Dhari, the bearer of three arrows, Lakhdatar, the giver of lakhs, and Haare ka Sahara, the support of those who have lost.
The Goddess Barbarika worshipped as a boy, who gave him his three arrows and his strength. In the Skanda Purana he serves her as Siddhambika at Mahisagara.
The days of the fair
1
The fair opens
About the eighth day of the bright fortnight of Phalguna · Monday 15 March 2027
Phalgun MelaLakkhi Mela
The roads into Khatu fill. The town of a few thousand people takes in pilgrims in their millions over the week, and the queues to the temple run for kilometres through bamboo railings. Rest houses, the dharamshalas run by Marwari trusts and by towns all over North India, open their doors and feed the walkers free.
Most pilgrims walk the last eighteen kilometres from Ringas railway station, and many walk from much further, from Jaipur and from Delhi. They carry the nishan, a tall saffron or red flag with Shyam's name or face on it, and sing his bhajans all the way. Some lie down and measure the road with their bodies. Each flag is offered at the temple when they reach it.
The eleventh day of the bright fortnight of Phalguna · Thursday 18 March 2027
Amalaki EkadashiRangbhari Ekadashi
The great day of the fair. The temple stays open through the night and the head is dressed and decorated as finely as it will be all year. Bhajan singers keep a jagaran, a night of songs, in tents and courtyards across the town, and pilgrims bathe in the Shyam Kund, the pool where the head was found.
The twelfth day of the bright fortnight · Friday 19 March 2027
Baba's bhog
The day many tell as the day Barbarika gave his head. Food offered to Shyam is shared out, the fasts of the eleventh are broken, and the walkers begin to go home, many in time to play Holi in their own villages a few days later.
The temple of the head, with the Shyam Kund where it was found and the Shyam Bagh garden beside it. Besides the Phalgun fair, the head's birthday on Kartika shukla ekadashi and the eleventh of every month's bright fortnight draw crowds.
HaryanaChulkana Dham
At Chulkana, near Samalkha in Panipat district, tradition places the spot where Barbarika gave his head, beside a peepal tree whose leaves are still shown pierced with holes, the work of his first arrow.
Himachal PradeshKamrunag
In Mandi district the hill god Kamrunag, worshipped at a high lake into which pilgrims throw gold and coins, is said in some tellings to be Barbarika, whose head watched the war from the mountain.
GujaratBaliyadev
In some villages of Gujarat Barbarika is worshipped as Baliyadev, the hero who gave his life as a sacrifice so that the Pandavas would win.
NepalYalambar and Akash Bhairav
In Kathmandu the great mask of Akash Bhairav, shown during Indra Jatra, is said to be the head of the Kirati king Yalambar, who went to Kurukshetra to fight for the losing side and gave his head to Krishna. Many tellers take him to be Barbarika under another name.
Across IndiaShyam temples
Marwari families have carried the worship of Shyam to every town they settled in, from Kolkata and Guwahati to Hyderabad, Mumbai and abroad, and their Shyam temples hold their own Phalgun fairs and night-long bhajans on the same dates.
How it is kept
Most pilgrims walk. The usual walk is from Ringas, eighteen kilometres away, but many come on foot from Jaipur, Delhi and Haryana over days, singing. They carry the nishan, Shyam's saffron flag, some of them taller than a man, and offer it at the temple. Along the way villages and trusts set up stalls to give the walkers water, tea, food and a place to sleep, and doctors set up first aid tents for blistered feet.
At the temple people wait in long queues for a moment in front of the head, which is dressed in silk and flowers and given a different look for each day of the fair. Many bathe in the Shyam Kund first. Bhajan singers sing all night in the tents, and the eleventh and twelfth of the bright fortnight are the peak, when the temple does not close.
Outside the fair, the eleventh of every bright fortnight is Shyam's day, and his birthday, on the eleventh of the bright half of Kartika, is kept with a fair of its own.
In the old texts
The Mahabharata of Vyasa knows Ghatotkacha and his death but no son named Barbarika. Barbarika's story is told in the Skanda Purana, where he is Barbarika the son of Ghatotkacha and Kamakantakata, killed by Krishna's discus before the war, and his head watches the fighting at Krishna's request. The later retellings of the epic in the regional languages, the Odia Mahabharata of Sarala Das among them, are often cited for the head on the hill.
The temple at Khatu records its own history. The head was found, it says, by a cow at the spot of the Shyam Kund, and a temple was built in 1027 by Roop Singh Chauhan. The present building dates from 1720, when it was rebuilt by Diwan Abhay Singh on the orders of the ruler of Marwar.
Where this page comes from. Written by Devalok from the Skanda Purana (Mahesvara Khanda, Kaumarika Khanda 59 to 66), the Rajasthan Devasthan Vibhag's account of the Khatu Shyam temple, the temple's own katha, published accounts of the Khatu Phalgun fair, and the traditions of Chulkana, Kamrunag and Kathmandu, as recorded in the Devalok Lore. Our own words throughout.
