Bahucharaji, Mehsana

The Bahuchara Mata temple at Becharaji in Mehsana district, Gujarat, 110 kilometres from Ahmedabad — the kuladevi (clan goddess) of the hijra / kinnar (traditional transgender) communities of western India, and the pre-eminent Shakti pilgrimage for gender-diverse Hindus. The temple is dedicated to Bahuchara Mata (a form of the goddess who in the originating myth cursed a king to become impotent, and who thereafter protects those with non-standard gender). The temple's annual festival draws tens of thousands of hijra and kinnar pilgrims from across India for darshan and initiation rituals. The 2014 Supreme Court NALSA judgement that legally recognised the third gender in India drew on the Bahucharaji tradition. The temple's foundation is 11-12 century Solanki; the current structure is 18-century Maratha-period. Managed by the Bahucharaji Devasthan Trust.