Khandoba
खंडोबा खण्डोबा
Also Malhari Martand, Mailara, Mallanna, Khanderaya.
SaivaVillage and folk
Who this is
Khandoba is the kuladaivat of a very large number of Marathi households, and his following crosses every line the region has: Brahmin and Dhangar, farmer and warrior, Hindu and in places Muslim, who know him as Mallu Khan. He is read as a form of Siva who came down as a warrior on horseback to kill the demons Mani and Malla. His worship is turmeric: the bhandara is thrown by the handful until the shrine, the priests and everybody present are yellow, and Jejuri on a festival day is visibly gold from a distance.
How to recognise them
A warrior on a white horse with a sword, his wife Mhalsa riding behind him, a dog running alongside and the demon under the hooves. Often shown as a linga at the same shrine, which the tradition treats as the same deity in two registers rather than a confusion.
Family and companions
Mhalsa is his first wife, from a Lingayat merchant family; Banai is the second, a Dhangar shepherd woman, and the two marriages are told as the alliance of the settled and the pastoral. Siva is the form behind him and Parvati behind Mhalsa. The dog is his constant companion.
How they are worshipped
Champa Shashthi in Margashirsha; Somvati Amavasya; Sunday.
Bhandara, turmeric powder, is the offering and is thrown rather than placed. Brinjal and bajra are his foods. The six day navratra of Margashirsha ends at Champa Shashthi. Vows include the waghya and murali, children dedicated to the shrine, a practice the state has long since outlawed and which the tradition now addresses rather than defends.
The stories
As they are told, with the disagreements left in
Mani and Malla
The demons Mani and Malla had a boon and were destroying the sages of the Deccan. Siva took the form of a warrior on horseback, with Vishnu, and fought them for six days. Malla was killed. Mani, dying, asked three things: that his horse be given to the god, that he be present at every shrine of his killer, and that human sacrifice not be demanded of him. All three were granted, which is why Mani’s head is at the foot of every Khandoba image and worshipped with him. A defeated demon who negotiates and is honoured is a shape of story the Deccan is fond of.
The shepherd’s daughter
Khandoba saw Banai, a Dhangar woman, while out hunting and wanted to marry her. Mhalsa, his first wife, objected. He went to Banai’s people in disguise, worked as a herdsman for them, and won her. The two wives did not get on, and the tradition does not smooth it over: Jejuri keeps Mhalsa on the hill and Banai at a separate shrine below, and the festival calendar gives each her own days. The marriage is read as the Deccan’s settled farmers and its pastoralists bound into one cult, with the friction left in.
Where the regions differ
- Tamil
- Kerala
- Telugu
- Kannada
- North
- Maharashtra
- Bengal
- Punjab
- Assam
- Sri Lanka
- Nepal
- Gujarat
- Odisha
- Mithila
- Kashmir
- Tulu Nadu
- manipur
- rajasthan
- konkani
- sindhi
- jharkhand
- himalayan
- kodava
- Maharashtra
- Jejuri is the great shrine, gold with turmeric on festival days, and he is the kuladaivat of households across castes; the cry is Yelkot Yelkot Jai Malhar.
- Karnataka
- North Karnataka keeps him as Mailara of Mailara and Devaragudda, with the Karnika prophecy shouted from a bow by a possessed oracle.
- Andhra and Telangana
- Telangana keeps him as Mallanna at Komuravelli, with the Oggu Katha singers telling his story through the night.
Their days
Every one of these has a page of its own
Where to see them
From the temple directory
- Khandoba Temple, Jejuri Jejuri, Pune, Maharashtra