01Haare ka sahara
Barbarika, son of Ghatotkacha, came to Kurukshetra with three arrows and a vow to fight for whichever side was losing. Shri Krishna saw that such a vow would leave no one standing, came to him as a Brahmin and asked for his head as dakshina. Barbarika gave it gladly, asking only to watch the war. Krishna set the head on a hilltop and blessed him: in Kali Yuga you will be worshipped by my name. So devotees call him Shyam Baba and Haare ka Sahara, the support of the defeated, and they come to him when every other door has closed.
02Shyam Kund and the Phalgun mela
The temple’s tradition says the head lay buried at Khatu until a cow began to pour her milk on one spot. The ground was dug, the shish was found, and Roop Singh Chauhan, the local ruler, raised a temple for it in 1027 CE after a dream. The pit is Shyam Kund, where pilgrims bathe before darshan. The great fair falls in the bright half of Phalgun and peaks on Ekadashi; for days the roads from Ringas are a river of people carrying the tall saffron nishan flags, many walking the last eighteen kilometres barefoot.
The life of this place
- 1027 CE (temple tradition)Roop Singh Chauhan builds the first temple over the shish found at Shyam Kund.
Ringas on the Jaipur–Sikar line is the nearest railhead, about 17 km away. Avoid the Phalgun mela days unless you mean to walk with the crowd.
