Dera Baba Badbhag Singh Gurudwara(देवनागरी: डेरा बाबा बड़भाग सिंह) is a shrine of

Dera Baba Vadbhag Singh Dera Baba Badbhag Singh Gurudwara(देवनागरी: डेरा बाबा बड़भाग सिंह) is a shrine of Dera Baba Vadbhag Singh. It is located in Mairi village in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is known ...

. It is located in Mairi village in the Indian state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

. It is known for Holi mela. Visitors come from North Indian states and union territories including

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

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Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

and

Early life

Baba Vadbhag Singh was born at Kartarpur in 1715 A.D. He was the son of Baba Ram Singh and Mata Raj Kaur. He was a descendant of Dhir Mal, the first cousin of Dasam Padshahi Guru Gobind Singh. He succeeded to the hereditary ''gaddi'' (religious seat) of Sodhis of Kartarpur. Many stories are told about him. The shrine is about 10 km from

Amb AMB may refer to: * Active magnetic bearing * Advanced Memory Buffer, used in Fully Buffered DIMM memory * Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, one of the armed sections of the Palestinian Fatah movement * Ambergate railway station, abbreviation used in the ...

. Nehrian, a small hilly village serves as an entry point to the Holy place. Followers believe visiting the ''dera'' (shrine) cure patients possessed by evil spirits or affected with other malign influences.

Hola Mohalla fair

The Hola Mohalla fair is held at Dera Vadbhag Singh on the full moon day in the Vikrami month of

Phalgun Falgun or Phalgun (; ne, फाल्गुण) or Phagun ( as, ফাগুন) is the eleventh month of the year in the Bengali calendar, the Assamese calendar, and the Nepali calendar. In the revision of the Bengali calendar used in Bangladesh ...

(February-March). The fair lasts for ten days i.e., a week before the full-moon and two days after. The fair is attended by those possessed people and their relatives or who seek protection against similar malign influences. The ''dolis'' (afflicted persons) are seated in rows while metal platters and drums are beaten to charm the evil spirits. During the drumming, the ''dolis'' who continue tossing and swaying their heads about are made to inhale the smoke of burning incense. A number of methods are adopted to torture the evil spirits until they leave the body. At that stage the spirit is asked to proceed to the ''dhaulidhar'' (waterfall) to which it agrees. The spirit is then questioned whether it has arrived and sees Baba Vadbhag Singh with a cage. When the spirit replies in the affirmative, it is asked to enter the cage and to request Baba Ji to shut the cage. The ''dolis'' is then seen to have recovered. Every visitor who attends the fair pays obeisance at the shrine besides taking a holy bath at the ''dhaulidhar'' or ''charan ganga,'' especially on the full moon–day. The devotees take the ''dhaulidhar'''s sacred water home. The most important ceremony at the shrine is the hoisting of the flag ''Nishan Sahib''. It is done on the full moon day. The old Nishan Sahib is retired after recitation of supplication. The devotees try to obtain a piece of the old cloth or various other articles attached to the old flag, such as

cowrie Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (''porcellana'') d ...

shells, betelnuts, or coins. Possession of these is regarded as a boon. A young pine tree that may be as tall as ., and whose trunk measures in diameter is earmarked every third year to serve as a flagpole for the Nishan Sahib. ''Lacs'' of people attend the fair from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Himachal. The Sikhs of

Doaba Doaba also known as Bist Doab, is the region of Punjab, India that lies between the Beas River and the Sutlej River. People of this region are given the demonym "Doabia". The dialect of Punjabi spoken in Doaba is called "Doabi". Th ...

Majha Majha ( Punjabi: ਮਾਝਾ (Gurmukhi), (Shahmukhi); ''Mājhā'') is a region located in the central parts of the historical Punjab region split between India and Pakistan. It extends north from the right banks of the river Beas, and reaches ...

and

Malwa Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also syno ...

tracts of Punjab especially are votaries of Vadbhag Singh and attend the fair in large numbers. Most of the women who attend the fair are possessed

Nearby places

* Chintpurni Temple * Kamakhya Devi, Poliyan * Sadashiv Mandir, Dhyunsar

References

{{coord missing, Himachal Pradesh Gurdwaras in Himachal Pradesh Una, Himachal Pradesh Religious tourism in India Buildings and structures in Una district