Place · Barbarika-Shyam temple · India
Khatushyam, Sikar
Also known as Khatushyam, Khatushyam (Barbarika), Sikar
The Khatushyam temple at Khatu village in Sikar district, Rajasthan, 80 kilometres from Jaipur — the shrine of Shyam, a form of the Mahabharata warrior Barbarika (the grandson of Bhima and son of Ghatotkacha) whom Krishna convinced to sacrifice his head before the Kurukshetra war so that he could witness the battle. The sacrificed head, blessed by Krishna with the name Shyam ('dark one'), was buried at Khatu village. The temple is one of the largest annual religious fairs in India — the Phalgun Mela each February-March draws 5 million pilgrims over 10 days, especially from the Rajasthani Marwari and Agrawal communities. The temple is relatively modern as a mass pilgrimage; the current temple structure is 1720 Jaipur-period, with major 1991 and 2015 expansions. The Shyam Baba Mandir Trust runs the temple.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.798, 75.046
Connections (3)
- Shekhawati folkBalaji, Churu
Sālāsar Bālājī and Khātūshyāmjī are the two great folk-deity pilgrimages of Shekhāwati, fifty kilometres apart in Chūrū and Sīkar. Both grew in the eighteenth century around Marwari trading wealth, both draw enormous foot processions from Jaipur and Delhi, and neither is a temple of the classical sectarian orders. Both deities are addressed as the support of the defeated, which is a claim neither Śaiva nor Vaishnava institutions make and which is much of why the Shekhāwati shrines grew so fast.
- Companion in the same setMahavir Ji, Sawai Madhopur
Mahāvīr Ji and Khātūśyāmjī are the two largest fairs of eastern Rajasthan, a Digambara tirtha and a folk-deity shrine within a hundred and fifty kilometres. Both draw a crowd that does not sort itself by sect, and both were built up on Marwari trading wealth. Mahāvīr Ji's image is said to have been found by a Bhil herdsman whose cow gave milk over the spot, and his descendants keep a hereditary ritual role at the fair.
- Site adjacencyJeen Mata, Sikar district
Khatushyam at Khatu and Jeen Mata on her hill are both sacred sites of Sikar district in Rajasthan, roughly 65 kilometres apart. They are two of the major pilgrim centres of Shekhawati's folk Hindu landscape but neither is inside the other.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Barbarika”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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