Jyotiba

Jyotiba is the god of the hill of Wadi Ratnagiri, north-west of Kolhapur in Maharashtra. He is worshipped as a form of Kedāranātha — locally Kedarling — and honoured as a kuladevata by families across the western Deccan. In local tradition he is a god born of light, jyoti, an incarnation uniting the powers of the great gods, who came to earth to destroy the demons troubling the Kolhapur country and to stand guard over it thereafter; devotees link his campaigns with those of the goddess Mahalakshmi of Kolhapur.

The shrine

His temple crowns the hilltop at Wadi Ratnagiri, the present stone structure dating from the eighteenth century, with subsidiary shrines gathered around it. The god is served with offerings of gulal, pink powder, which colours the shrine, the priests and the pilgrims alike — the signature of his worship, as turmeric is of Khandoba's at Jejuri.

Worship

Jyotiba's great gathering is the fair of Chaitra Purnima, the full moon of spring, when vast crowds ascend the hill, tall ceremonial poles called sasan kathis are carried up in procession, and the mountain disappears under drifting clouds of pink. Sundays are the god's own day, and the cry of his devotees — hailing Jyotiba with the shout of “chang bhala” — carries over the hill throughout the year.