THE seat of Baba Barbhag Singh at Mairi is a prominent place of worship in North India. Each year, as many as 10 lakh people converge at this tiny village, 42 km from Una on the Amb-Hamirpur highway in Himachal Pradesh. This is where Baba Barbhag Singh of the Sodhi clan undertook penance.

The village has five places of worship — Dera Sahib or the samadhi, Manji Sahib, Charan Ganga, Nahar Singh temple and Kujjasar. Interestingly, revenue records of the village describe the samadhi as thakurdwara.

Baba Barbhag Singh was born in 1715 to Baba Ram Singh and Raj Kaur in Kartarpur, near Jalandhar, in Punjab. It is believed that due to the repeated invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdali, Baba left his birthplace in 1756 to take refuge in the pine-covered Shivalik hills.

It is believed that Baba meditated under a ber tree, which still exists. Legend has it that Baba’s soul could leave the body on earth at will to go to the heavens. The soul would later re-enter the body. Baba would tell his relatives that his body in such a state was not to be touched. Once, when Baba’s soul did not re-enter the body for many days, his relatives, taking him to be dead, performed his last rites. After a long time, the soul returned from its wanderings, and Baba’s relatives realised their folly and were filled with remorse. Today this place is also known as the samadhi.

Adjoining the dera or the samadhi is the imposing Gurdwara Manji Sahib. It stands at the site where Baba lived with his family.

About 2 km south of the dera is a waterfall known as Charan Ganga or Dhauli Dhar. It is said that at one time, when this place was uninhabited, a demon called Nahar Singh held sway over the area. This ghoul used to render people insane. After having succeeded in nailing him, Baba is said to have put him in a cage and directed him to help the poor and the downtrodden. People afflicted with mental disorders are now made to bathe at Charan Ganga. Devotees also take home water from here.

The main attraction of the Mairi Mela is the raising of a standard at the dera. Every third year, a 50-foot-long trunk of a pine tree with a girth of 4-5 feet is selected and is stripped of its bark. Before being raised on the occasion of Holi, it is washed with curd and water. Next, yellow and vermilion silk scarves offered by devotees are tied along its length to cover it. It is then draped thrice over with silk, and decorated with coins, betel-nuts, multi-coloured scarves and balloons. At such times when the standard is changed, devotees consider it a great fortune to receive fragments of the old habit.

Devotees coming to the mela camp at Mairi for days and spend nights singing to the accompaniment of the drum and tongs. Many sway rhythmically to the beat of the music. Men and women — mostly it’s the latter — sit or stand fixedly with their long hair swishing about as they swirl round their heads with ever-increasing bursts of energy. This trance-like state continues for hours after which it is all serenity. They are then supposed to have rid themselves of evil spirits. The Mairi Mela is, on the one hand, indicative of faith of countless people in a tradition, and on the other, it is a symbol of amity and devotion.