Vadbhag Singh Sodhi

Dera Baba Badbhag Singh (देवनागरी: डेरा बाबा बड़भाग सिंह) is a shrine of Dera Baba Vadbhag Singh. It is located in Mairi Village of Una District in the State of Himachal Pradesh, India. The tourist place is famous for Holi mela . It sees tourists from North Indian states and union territories like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.

Significant

Baba Vadbhag Singh, the son of Baba Ram Singh and Mata Raj Kaur, and a descendant of Dhir Mal, the first cousin of ‘Dasam Padshahi’ Guru Gobind Singh, was born at Kartarpur in 1715 A.D. He succeeded to the hereditary gaddi (religious seat) of Sodhis of Kartarpur. Many stories are narrated about him.

The shrine is located at a distance of about 10 km from Amb. Nehrian, a small hilly village serves as an entry point to the Holy place. From main bus stand Nehrian, it is just 3 km away. During the Holi fair, usually parking space is provided in Nehrian for Heavy weight Vehicles.It includes the Gurudwara Beri Sahib and Manji Sahib along with rooms for night stay.

Followers believe visiting the ‘dera’ (the holy shrine) cure patients possessed by evil spirits or affected with other malign influences.

Hola Mohalla Fair

The Hola Mohalla Fair is held once a year at Dera Vadbhag Singh on the full moon day in the Vikrami month of Phalgun(February-March). The fair lasts for ten days i.e., a week before the full-moon day and two days after it. By and large the fair is attended by those persons who or whose relatives are possessed by evil-spirits or who seek protection against similar malign influences. The afflicted persons, called ‘dolis’, are seated in rows while bell-metal-platters and drums are beaten to charm the evil spirits. During the drumming, the dolis who continue tossing and swaying their heads about are made to inhale the odour of some burning incense. A number of methods are adopted to torture the evil spirits till they do not agree to leave the body of the afflicted person. And then at that stage the spirit is asked to proceed to ‘dhaulidhar’ to which it agrees. The spirit is then questioned whether it has reached there and sees Baba Vadbhag Singh with a cage. When the spirit replies in the affirmative, it is asked to enter into the cage and to request Baba Ji to shut the cage. All this over, the afflicated person is seen to have made the recovery. Every visitor who attends the fair pays obeisance at the shrine of Vadbhag Singh besides taking a holy bath at the water fall known as ‘dhaulidhar’ or ‘charan ganga’ especially on the full moon–day. The pilgrims/devotees take the sacred water of the water fall home as well. The most important ceremony at the shrine is the hoisting of the flag ‘Nishan Sahib’ as the flag is called in reverence. It is done on the full moon day of Phalgun. The old Nishan Sahib is dehoisted after recitation of supplication. The devotees try to obtain a piece of the old cloth or various other articles attached to the dehoisted ‘Nishan Sahib’, such as cowrie shells, betelnuts, coins etc., the possession of which is regarded as a boon. A young pine tree which may be as tall as 70/80 ft., and whose trunk measures 4/5 ft. in diameter is earmarked every third year to serve as pole for the ‘Nishan Sahib’. Lacs of people attend the fair from different parts of Punjab, U.P., Delhi, Rajasthan and Himachal. The Sikhs of Doaba, Majha and Malwa tracts of Punjab especially are the votaries of Vadbhag Singh and they attend the fair in large numbers. Most of the women who attend the fair are generally possessed by evil spirits

Nearby places

• Chintpurni Temple
• Kamakhya Devi, Poliyan
• Sadashiv Mandir, Dhyunsar