Deo Surya Mandir, Aurangabad

01The temple that faces sunset

Sun temples face east, to receive the first light. Deo faces west. Chhath is the one festival in which the setting sun is worshipped first, on the evening of Shashthi, and at Deo the temple turns the same way. The tower is a tall Nagara shikhara of black and grey stone blocks set without mortar, with a Surya murti on his seven-horsed chariot inside. The temple tradition says it was built by Raja Aila, who was cured of a skin disease by bathing in the pond here and found the murti in its water.

02Chhath at Deo

In the four days of Chhath the town fills beyond counting. Vratis, many of them women who have kept the nirjala fast, stand waist-deep in the Surya Kund with baskets of thekua, sugarcane and fruit, and offer arghya first to the setting and then to the rising sun. The Chaiti Chhath in spring draws almost as many. A Surya Mahotsav is held here by the Bihar government.