Khatu Shyam Mandir is a Hindu temple in Khatu village, just 43 km from Sikar city in Sikar district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a pilgrimage site for the worship of the deities Krishna and Barbarika, who are often worshiped as family deities. Devotees believe that the temple houses the head of Barbarik or Khatushyam, a great warrior who sacrificed his head at the request of Krishna during the Kurukshetra war.
Before the start of the Mahabharata war, Barbarik’s last wish was to see the “Mahabharata” war so Lord Krishna himself placed his head on a mountain top for Barbarik to see the war. Many years after Kaliyuga began, the head was found buried in Khatu village (Sikar district) in present-day Rajasthan.
This place was obscure for a long time after the beginning of the Kaliyuga period. Then, on one occasion, when the cow approached the burial site, milk started flowing from its udder on its own. Surprised by this incident, when the local villagers dug the place, the buried head came to light. The head was handed over to a Brahmin who worshiped it for several days and waited for divine revelation as to what was to be done next.
Then Raja Roop Singh Chauhan of Khatu had a dream in which he was inspired to build a temple and install the head in it. Subsequently, a temple was built and the idol was installed on the 11th day of Shukla Paksha of the month of Phalguna.
There is another, only slightly different version of this legend. Roop Singh Chauhan was the ruler of Khatu. His wife, Narmada Kanwar, once had a dream in which the deity instructed her to take his image out of the earth. The indicated place (now known as Shyam Kund) was excavated. Certainly, this yielded the idol, which was duly installed in the temple.
The original temple was built by Roop Singh Chauhan in 1027 AD, when his wife Narmada Kanwar dreamed of the buried idol. The place from where the idol was excavated is called Shyam Kund. [1] In 1720 AD, on the orders of the then ruler of Marwar, a nobleman named Diwan Abhay Singh renovated the old temple. At this time the temple took its present shape and the idol was installed in the sanctum sanctorum. This idol is made of rare stone. Khatushyam is the family deity of many families.
