Khatu Shyamji Phalgun Mela · Lakkhi Mela Festival The main day of the greatest fair in Rajasthan, at Khatu in Sikar district.

English

Khatu Shyamji Phalgun Mela · Lakkhi Mela

हिन्दी

खाटू श्याम फाल्गुन मेला

राजस्थानी

खाटू श्यामजी फाल्गुन मेला

Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.

1. Thursday, 18 March 2027
2. Tuesday, 7 March 2028
3. Sunday, 25 February 2029

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Worked out for Chennai, Lahiri ayanamsa. A date is a function of the place: set yours above and the next three come back for where you are.

The main day of the greatest fair in Rajasthan, at Khatu in Sikar district. Barbarika, the grandson of Bhima, had a boon that made him unbeatable and gave his head to Krishna before the Kurukshetra war rather than let it decide the battle; Krishna gave him his own name and the promise that he would be worshipped as Shyam in this age, and the head is held to have come to light at Khatu. The nishan, a triangular flag, is carried on foot the seventeen kilometres from Ringas and offered at the temple, and lakhs of people walk the road in the eleven days to the Ekadashi.

Deity

Khatu Shyam, Krishna

Kind

Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.

Phalguna Shukla Ekadashi at sunrise is the pragatya tithi and the main day; the Dwadashi after it carries the same crowd, and the fair fills the week before.

Sunrise 06:15, sunset 18:20, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.

No fast is kept. The bhandaras on the Ringas road feed the walkers for the whole of the mela.

Rajasthan keeps it as a state fair and the Marwari trading families keep Shyam as a house deity wherever they have settled, so the Shyam mandirs of Kolkata, Guwahati and Mumbai keep the same Ekadashi. The rest of the country keeps the tithi only as Amalaki Ekadashi.

The dates above are the Rajasthan reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.

• Khatu Shyamji Temple 1,671 km
  Sikar, Rajasthan

  The entry for this day names Khatu, and it is a temple of Khatu Shyam. The main day of the greatest fair in Rajasthan, at Khatu in Sikar district.

• Shri Devikoop Bhadrakali Temple, Kurukshetra 1,912 km
  Haryana

  The entry for this day names Kurukshetra, and it is a temple of Krishna. Barbarika, the grandson of Bhima, had a boon that made him unbeatable and gave his head to Krishna before the Kurukshetra war rather than let it decide the battle

A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed. Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.

Yatra, setting out on a journey. The classical rule is by direction: Sukra and the Yogini of the day sit in the direction not to be travelled, and a disagreeable direction is answered with a token journey a day earlier. That is not computed here. The weekday folklore differs from place to place, so only Sevvai and Sani are marked weak. The windows below are the daylight stretches with a movable or dual sign rising, outside Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal.

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Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.