Quick answer: Bikhauti (also Bikhoti or Vishuwat Sankranti) is the Kumaoni solar new year, falling on the first day of Baisakh when the sun crosses from Pisces into Aries. Bikhauti 2027 falls on Wednesday, 14 April. Households bathe at river confluences with sesame seeds, and the great fair of the day is the Syalde Bikhauti mela at Dwarahat in Almora district, which runs across roughly 13–16 April and centres on Oda Bhetna — the striking of a stone that has been struck every year since the fourteenth century.
Kumaon has a Sankranti festival at nearly every seasonal hinge, and Bikhauti is the one that turns the year over completely: same astronomical moment as Baisakhi in Punjab, Vishu in Kerala, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu and Pana Sankranti in Odisha, observed here as a bath, a fair, and a fight that has been ritualised into a procession.
What Bikhauti Is
Vishuwat is the equinoctial crossing; Sankranti is the sun's transit into a new sign. On this day the sun leaves Meena (Pisces) and enters Mesh (Aries), the solar month of Baisakh begins, and the Hindu solar year starts over.
The Kumaoni name Bikhauti carries a second meaning that shapes the day's main ritual: bikh is poison. The year's accumulated poison — literal and otherwise — is understood to be washed out of the body on this day. Which is why the observance begins in cold water.
Like Harela, Phool Dei, Ghee Sankranti and Khatarua, it is a solar date, so it does not wander: 14 April, most years.
The Sesame Bath
Before dawn, households go to a sangam — a river confluence — to bathe. Bageshwar, where the Saryu and Gomti meet, and Jageshwar are the two best-known places for it, and both hold fairs on the day.
The bath is taken with sesame seeds (til). Sesame is the substance used in havan and yagya, and the belief is direct: the poison collected in the body across the year is drawn out and carried off in the water with the til. Households then clean the house, put on new clothes, and cook for the day.
If it rains on Bikhauti, hill farmers read it as the best possible sign — an abundant harvest ahead and crops protected from disease.
The Syalde Bikhauti Mela
The fair is actually two fairs, which is where the double name comes from.
The evening before, on the last day of Chaitra, a fair is held at the Vimandeshwar (Vibhandeshwar) temple, a Shiva temple about five to eight kilometres from Dwarahat. Folk dancers and villagers converge on it carrying their traditional flags, and Shiva is worshipped. That is the Bikhauti part.
The next day, on the first day of Baisakh, the fair moves down into Dwarahat bazaar itself. That is the Syalde part. Together they are the Syalde Bikhauti mela, sometimes called the Dwarahat fair. Locally the days are further split: the first day is Chhoti Syalde, and the second and third — 15 and 16 April — are Badi Syalde.
Dwarahat sits about 37 km from Ranikhet on the Ranikhet–Karnaprayag road. The whole of Chaitra, the month before, is given over to folk dance and song in the surrounding villages, with the old Kumaoni song "O bhina, kaskai janu Dwarahat" — brother-in-law, how does one get to the Dwarahat fair — sung in the run-up.
Oda Bhetna: Striking the Stone
The core ritual is a strange and very old one, and it is the reason to go.
The story is placed in the fourteenth century, under the Katyuri kings. Two groups fell into a dispute during worship at the Sheetla Devi temple. It became a fight. The leader of the defeated side was beheaded, and his head was buried in the ground at Dwarahat with a stone set over the spot. That stone is the Oda (Ora).
Since then, on Vishuwat Sankranti, the villages come to the stone and strike it with wooden staves. This is Oda Bhetna — meeting, or striking, the Oda. The groups gather from noon and beat at the stone through the afternoon; the fair proper begins once it has been struck. In some accounts the striking runs from morning to evening.
It is a commemoration of a victory that stopped mattering six centuries ago, kept going as pure ritual form. Nobody at Dwarahat is settling the old score. They are hitting the stone because the stone gets hit.
The Three Groups
For the procession the villages organise into three named groups: Aal, Garakh (Garakh) and Naujyula. Each dresses distinctly, each carries its own flags — the dhwaja — and each brings its own musicians, with dhol, nagara and ransing (the long curved horn).
They enter Dwarahat from different directions. The Aal group comes down the central street of the old bazaar; Garakh and Naujyula come in from their own sides. The convergence of three flag-carrying, drum-led processions into one small hill bazaar is the visual set-piece of the fair, and the reason it has held its character better than most Kumaoni melas.
The Other Fairs
Vishuwat Sankranti is a fair day across the region, not only at Dwarahat:
- Bageshwar — the Saryu–Gomti confluence, a major bathing fair.
- Jageshwar — bathing and temple observance at the Shiva complex.
- Somnath fair, Masi — held at the Shiva temple in Masi, Almora district; the well-known fair of the Pali Pachhaun area.
- Punyagiri, Pithoragarh — a hilltop temple above the Kali river that draws large pilgrim numbers on this day.
After Bikhauti the Kumaoni year runs into Jeth and Asarh — the dry heat, then the first clouds — until the seeds go into the basket again for Harela in July. The full cycle is set out in the Kumaoni festival calendar 2026–27.
FAQ
When is Bikhauti in 2027?
Bikhauti 2027 falls on Wednesday, 14 April — Vishuwat Sankranti, the first day of Baisakh, when the sun crosses from Pisces into Aries. It is a solar date and lands on 14 April in most years.
What is the Syalde Bikhauti mela?
An annual fair at Dwarahat in Almora district, held in two parts: the Bikhauti fair at the Vimandeshwar Shiva temple on the evening before, and the Syalde fair in Dwarahat bazaar on Vishuwat Sankranti itself. In 2027 the fair days run roughly 13–16 April, with Chhoti Syalde on the first day and Badi Syalde on the two following.
What is Oda Bhetna?
The central ritual of the Syalde Bikhauti mela: villagers strike a stone, the Oda, with wooden staves. The stone is said to mark where the head of a defeated leader was buried after a fourteenth-century dispute at the Sheetla Devi temple, during the Katyuri period. The fair proper begins once the stone has been struck.
Why do people bathe with sesame seeds on Bikhauti?
Bikh means poison in Kumaoni, and the belief is that the poison accumulated in the body over the year is washed out on this day. Sesame, the substance used in havan, is used in the bath, which is taken at a river confluence — Bageshwar and Jageshwar being the best-known places.
Is Bikhauti the same as Baisakhi?
They fall on the same astronomical moment — the solar new year on the first day of Vaishakh — but they are separate regional festivals with different rituals. The same transit is marked as Vishu in Kerala, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu and Pana Sankranti in Odisha.
बिखौती 2027 कब है? (When is Bikhauti 2027?)
बिखौती 2027 में बुधवार, 14 अप्रैल को है — विषुवत संक्रांति, बैसाख महीने का पहला दिन और कुमाऊँनी सौर नववर्ष। इस दिन लोग बागेश्वर और जागेश्वर जैसे संगमों पर तिल डालकर स्नान करते हैं, और द्वाराहाट में स्याल्दे बिखौती मेला लगता है जिसमें "ओड़ा भेटना" — पत्थर पर डंडे मारने की सदियों पुरानी रस्म — निभाई जाती है।