Maa Barahi Devi temple is located in Champawat district of Uttarakhand. Every year the temple organized a very unusual fair , and people from all of the Kumaon division came here to enjoy and visit the temple as well. Not oy from Kumaon only but from Nepal and other places as well . This fair is held on day of Raksha Bandhan every year.
A different kind of festival, Bagwal is held in which people sing and dance in two groups and throw stones at each other and also try to protect themselves with large wooden shields. The participants won’t care about their wounds and they found it auspicious. Well , till date due to this Bagwal festival there is no loss of life. In recent year stone is replaced with fruit and flowers.
Barahi Devi temple is surrounded by tall oak and deodar trees and all around is surrounded by great floraand fauna.
Story of Jim Corbett’s temple tiger is related to Barahi Mandir. It is said that Pandavas used to play with large stone present at the temple and no one is allowed to see the statue of Devi with bare eyes, it is believed by locals that whoever see Devi bare eyes gets blind. So Devi is covered with red clothes.
During festivals when the cleaning goes of the statues the person who do has to cover his eyes with black cloth.
In Navratri temple witness huge crowd of devotees from all over the Uttarakhand as well as outside too. The priests at temple worship the Devi and then Prasad is distributed.
This temple holds a very great place in the heart of locals and they follow all the rituals very seriously.
According to Hindu mythology this place holds a special place in Hindu religion and the goddess who is worshiped here is very much powerful.
The people who participate in game here during festivals are meant to be doing that for some wishes to be fulfilled.
If you are planning to visit this place , anytime of year is well and good but during the festival going on here , that is the time you can see the culture beliefs and practices of people here.