Jejuri Bhandara: Khandoba's hill in a cloud of turmeric

There is no single Bhandara day. Jejuri has two kinds of great yatra (pilgrimage) days:

• Champa Shashthi, the sixth lunar day of the bright half of Margashirsha, which closes a six-day Khandoba festival, usually between mid-November and mid-December.
• Somvati Amavasya, a new moon that falls on a Monday. It comes one to three times a year, and each one is a yatra day with turmeric and the palanquin procession to the river.

The Ministry of Tourism's festival portal counts close to six lakh (600,000) visitors at the Bhandara festival. The temple trust, Shri Martand Dev Sansthan, publishes the yatra calendar for the year, including each Somvati Amavasya, so check it before you fix a date. The list of upcoming days is in the dates block on this page.

From dawn pilgrims climb the long stone stairway to the temple, passing under arches and between deepmalas, stone towers for oil lamps. Turmeric is bought at the foot of the steps and thrown on the way up and in the courtyard, by the handful and by the sackful, to the cry "Yelkot yelkot Jai Malhar". By mid-morning the steps are crowded. The temple itself is built like a fort with walled compounds, and locals call it kot, fort.

Families perform tali bharne: a plate filled with turmeric, coconut and bel leaves is lifted over the head three times, then the coconut is showered around. The Vaghyas, Khandoba's bards, who call themselves his dogs, sing his deeds.

On Somvati Amavasya the images of Khandoba and his consort Mhalsa leave the temple in a palanquin in the afternoon and are carried about 7 km through the town and nearby villages to the Karha river, where they are bathed near Rambhai Visava, then brought back in the evening. The riverbank and the route are free to stand on. Higher up the hill is Kadepathar, the older shrine, also crowded on the big days.

The legend is told in the Malhari Mahatmya. The demon brothers Malla and Mani won invincibility from Brahma and began to torment the sages. Shiva took the form of Martanda Bhairava, a warrior shining like gold and the sun and covered in turmeric, and fought them for six days; on the sixth, Champa Shashthi, he slew them. Ever since, the story goes, Khandoba has ruled from his fort at Jejuri, handing out gold, and the yellow powder thrown on his hill recalls that golden form.

Khandoba, also called Malhari Martand, Mhalsakant or Mylaralinga, is the family deity of many Maharashtrian households, from warrior and priestly families to farmers and herders, including the Dhangar shepherd communities. In Karnataka the same god is worshipped as Mailara, and Marathi tradition says Khandoba came to Jejuri from Pember near Bidar. Some Muslims revere him as Mallu Khan, and in Jejuri a Muslim family traditionally keeps the god's horses. The temple also holds a bell from a Portuguese church at Vasai, given by the Maratha general Chimaji Appa after the battle of 1739.

Jejuri is in Purandar taluka of Pune district, and the practical plan is a day trip from Pune: Jejuri has little accommodation, while Pune has rooms at every price, and a week's notice is usually enough even for a yatra day. By road it is about 50 km, roughly two hours on the MSRTC state buses from Swargate via Saswad. Local trains on the Pune–Miraj line also stop at Jejuri station.

On a yatra day, start early: the aim is to be at the steps around dawn, before the crowd thickens by mid-morning. More about the temple itself is on the Jejuri Khandoba Temple page.