Khodiyar

Khodiyar is a warrior-goddess of Gujarat, worshipped above all in Saurashtra, where she began as the deified daughter of a Charan household. Tradition places her in the early medieval centuries and makes her one of several sisters born to a pious Charan couple through divine favour. Her distinguishing emblem is her mount: she rides a crocodile, a mark that sets her apart among the goddesses of western India and ties her to the rivers and waters of the peninsula.

The tradition

In local telling Khodiyar was a healer and protector in life, and her miracles, restoring the injured, rescuing the drowning, humbling the arrogant, earned her worship as a manifestation of Shakti. Like other Charan goddesses of the region she is honoured as a kuladevi, a hereditary clan deity: the Gohil Rajputs of the Bhavnagar region historically counted her their protectress, and many Gujarati castes and families across communities continue to worship her as the guardian of their line.

Worship

Her principal temples in Saurashtra stand at Rajpara near Bhavnagar, at Matel and at Galdhara, typically beside water in keeping with her crocodile mount. Devotees seek her aid in illness, childlessness and difficulty of every kind, and her fairs draw large crowds from across Gujarat and from Gujarati communities abroad.