Maa Tarini

Maa Tarini is the goddess of Ghatgaon in Odisha's Keonjhar district, one of the most widely loved deities of the state. She is worshipped in aniconic form: a rounded face of vermilion red, set with large white eyes, gazing out from the sanctum. Her worship carries the marks of the forested hill country around her, and devotees hold her to be a rescuer — tarini, “she who carries across” — of those in danger and difficulty.

The tradition

The story told at the shrine links the goddess to the rulers of Keonjhar: a king returning from Puri was granted the goddess's presence on condition that he never look back as she followed; at Ghatgaon he turned, and there she stayed. Whatever its origins, the shrine grew from a forest seat into a major regional pilgrimage centre, and her worship is generally understood to rest on older local and tribal devotion to a goddess of the woods.

The coconut relay

Maa Tarini's most distinctive custom is the offering of coconuts. Devotees unable to travel to Ghatgaon hand their coconut to anyone going in the shrine's direction; drivers and travellers pass such offerings along from hand to hand until they reach the temple, where thousands arrive daily. Bus and lorry drivers hold her in particular regard as a protector on the road, and the unbroken chain of relayed coconuts has become the emblem of her cult.