mm
NAVIGATE
Fringe Visit
Heaven’s Rings
thousands of bells From satisfied devotees at Kumaon’s Golu temple
Photograph & Text by Prachi Joshi
Golu Devata, is known to fulfil wishes, and devotees flood this temple in Uttarakhand with petitions. When they are granted, devotees gift the shrine a bell.
T
he road to the Golu temple in Chitai,
10 km from Amora, in Uttarakhand’s
Kumaon region, was lined with
vendors selling an array of brass bells.
There was a bell at the entrance, like at any
other temple, but there were also hundreds
of bells in the passageway to the shrine—
bells big and small, bells simple and ornate,
all jostling for space. Some were inscribed
with names of those who had tied them,
some proclaimed Jai Golu Devata and
many of them had scraps of chunari—red
cloth with a golden fringe, usually offered
to a goddess—tied to them.
As I walked around the perimeter of this
temple (there are two other Golu temples
in the region), I suddenly understood the
importance of the bells. Hundreds of bits
of paper tied around the shrine fluttered in
the breeze: all petitions to Golu. Devotees
come from far and wide seeking Golu
Devata’s blessings and leave behind their
petitions. When devotees’ wishes, as voiced
in these petitions are granted, they gift the
temple a bell as a mark of gratitude. A couple of massive bells hung inside the shrine,
their size clearly in direct proportion to the
magnitude of the wishes fulfilled.
I walked around, reading the requests.
Some notes were short, scribbled on scraps
of paper or on pages torn from notebooks.
Others were carefully drafted, even written
on judicial stamp paper. The petitions covered a wide range of topics. Some wished
for good government jobs. One man hoped
to get married soon and wanted a job in the
army. Another wanted a foreign job so that
his parents could be proud of him.
One deovtee had a large amount of
money stuck in a project and asked for its
speedy retrieval. Papers related to legal
disputes, many of them typed on stamp
paper, had been left behind by devotees
hoping for quicker justice than the Indian
judicial system provides. Periodically, older
petitions are collected, bundled together
and hung in another area of the temple, to
make way for new ones.
Opposite the shrine, a group of young
women sang devotional songs. Coupled
with the sound of the dhol and the heady
smell of incense, their melodious voices
36 national Geographic Traveller INDIA | DECEMBER 2012
made the atmosphere festive. The faithful,
young and old, queued patiently to glimpse
the deity. A young couple ahead of me had
brought along their newborn to seek Golu’s
blessings. I imagine they had left behind a
note on their last visit and a new bell would
soon be added to the temple’s collection.
There are many stories about Golu. One
claims he is an incarnation of Gaur Bhairav
(Shiva). The most popular story is that he
was the son of King Jhal Rai of Champawat
nearby. Legend has it that while he was on a
hunt, the king came upon two fighting bulls.
He tried to separate them but failed. Tired
and thirsty, he sent his servants to look
for water. His servants found an ashram
where a lady was meditating. Angry at being
disturbed, Kali, as the woman was named,
mocked the king for failing to quell the animals. Instead, she caught hold of the bulls’
horns and parted the creatures herself.
The king was so impressed that he married her. But the king’s other wives were
very jealous of her, and when she gave
birth to a son, they hid the baby in a cage,
and put a stone in his place. They floated
the cage in the river, where a fisherman
found him and adopted him. When the
child grew up, he took a wooden horse
to the banks of the river where the king’s
wives came to fill water. The royal women
taunted him, saying that a wooden horse
could not drink water. The child replied
that if a woman could give birth to a stone,
then a wooden horse could drink water.
When King Jhal Rai heard of this, he
punished the queens and crowned the boy
his prince. The boy grew up to become the
king and was known for meting out quick
justice. Upon his death, he came to be worshipped as Gwalla, Goriya or Golu Devata.
Many years ago, some devotees used to
sacrifice goats as a way of thanking Golu
Devata. However, this practice has now
reduced sharply, and there is a move to stop
it completely. Judging by the number of
bells offered by the grateful at the temple,
Golu Devata does seem to respond to petitions rather quickly. So I left behind a small
note making a wish and hope to return with
a bell in the near future. n