Bagwal Fair

Every year during the festive preparations of Rakshabandhan, the Champawat district of Uttarakhand is filled with the colours of love and joy because of Bagwal Mela which is organized in the month of Sravan. Devidhura temple of Goddess Barahi is situated in Devidhura village which is located at 75 km distance from Champawat. The term ‘Bagwal’ means ‘fight with stones’ hints about the event of the fair.Mythological ImportanceAs per the folklore, there was a tradition of sacrificing a man (Narbali) every year to the goddess Barahi by the people of Kham. Kham is a group of four clans: Garhwal, Chamyal, Langaria and Balig. As per the tradition of sacrificing, the turn came to an old woman who had only a grandson which she reluctantly accepted to sacrifice for the appeasement of goddess Barahi. But goddess Barahi gave her the option to grant life to her grandson if she could offer the same amount of blood as an average man. Since then, the people of Kham celebrate this sacrificial ceremony in a usual manner to offering blood to goddess Barahi by pelting stones on each other. There are four Kham who has their own group to participate in this ceremony where every group protect themselves by farra (a wooden shield).