Khandesh · Deccan Inland Plateau
Festivals
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Kanbai | Shravan, in the days after Nag Panchami (July–August) | A mask of the goddess Kanbai is mounted on a decorated pole in the house, worshipped overnight with songs and offered rot, a thick wheat bread that must be finished inside the household and not carried out. The next day the mask goes in procession to water for immersion. It is kept in this form only in Khandesh and is the region's clearest ritual signature. |
| Akhaji | Akshaya Tritiya, Vaishakh (April–May) | The Khandeshi ancestor festival. New earthen pots are bought and filled with water, aamras and puran poli are offered to the household's dead before anyone eats, and swings are hung for girls. It falls at the hottest point of the year, and the cold water from a new pot is the whole gesture. |
| Holi and the Gher fairs | Phalgun (March) | On the Satpura slope Holi runs for days rather than one, with Gher dancing moving between villages and fairs at which marriages are negotiated by mutual choice. It is the main annual gathering of the Bhil, Pawra and Barela communities across three state lines. |
| Sarangkheda horse fair | Margashirsha, around Dattatreya Jayanti (December) | Weeks of horse trading on the Tapi bank, with Marwari and Kathiawari stock brought from Rajasthan and Gujarat, alongside a temple fair. |
| Toranmal Mahashivratri fair | Magh (February–March) | A hill fair at the Gorakhnath temple drawing pilgrims up the Satpura from three states, and the year's largest gathering on the slope after Holi. |
| Muktabai palkhi and the Ashadhi wari | Ashadh (June–July) | Muktabai's palkhi is taken from Muktainagar, and dindis from across Khandesh walk south to join the Pandharpur wari — the annual mechanism by which an Ahirani-speaking region participates in a Marathi devotional order. |
| Kartik snan at Prakasha | Kartik Purnima (November) | Mass bathing at the Tapi–Gomai confluence, with a fair around the old temple cluster. |
| Pola and Tanha Pola | Shravan Amavasya (August–September) | Bullocks are decorated and paraded, and children parade wooden bullocks of their own the following day — the Tanha Pola, kept with particular seriousness in this region and in Vidarbha. |
| Gudi Padwa and Dussehra | Chaitra (March–April); Ashwin (September–October) | Kept as across Marathi country, with the Dussehra exchange of apta leaves as symbolic gold, and in Khandesh a strong association with the start of the cotton season that follows. |
The festival calendar of Khandesh — what is celebrated, when it falls and what happens. (9)