Every monsoon, long before sunrise breaks over the forests of Junglemahal, thousands of devotees begin a silent ascent up the rocky slopes of Kanaisar Hill. Carrying terracotta horses, vermilion and flowers, they climb not merely to offer prayers but to renew a centuries-old covenant between humans and nature.
More than 105 years after historian Yogesh Chandra Basu chronicled this extraordinary pilgrimage in Medinipurer Itihas, Kanaisar Hill remains one of eastern India’s most enduring folk shrines, where mythology, indigenous traditions and ecological reverence continue to shape a living cultural landscape.
The festival is far from over. The second and concluding phase of the annual Kanaisar Hill Puja will be held on 19 July, the first Sunday of Shravan, when another wave of pilgrims from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha is expected to gather at the hill on the inter-state border. While the rituals are open to the public, local custom traditionally bars women from entering the shrine area on that day. The observance follows the main festival held on 4 July, which drew thousands of devotees and transformed the forested hill into a vibrant centre of worship and folk celebration.
Straddling Belpahari in West Bengal’s Jhargram district and Chakulia in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district, the hill has acquired many names over the centuries ~ Kanaisar, Kanaiyeshwar, Kanaisahar, Kanai Sahar and Kanai Sor. The variations, found in government records, historical documents, local dialects and oral traditions, testify to the hill’s deep cultural roots across three neighbouring states.
The antiquity of the pilgrimage is well documented. The 1961 Midnapore District Census Report recorded an estimated 50,000 devotees attending the Kanaisahar Parbat fair, demonstrating the festival’s enormous popularity long before improved roads and tourism opened up the remote region.
Its history stretches back even further. In Medinipurer Itihas, published more than a century ago, Yogesh Chandra Basu described Kanaisar as the highest hill in the then Binpur area, attracting pilgrims every Ashar from Bankura, Manbhum and Singhbhum. He wrote of dense forests, towering trees and rare flowering plants that surrounded the sacred site, preserving one of the earliest written accounts of the annual worship.
Basu also recorded the legend that still defines the hill’s sacred geography. According to local belief, the original shrine stood on the summit until a priest, returning to retrieve a forgotten sacrificial sword, encountered the deity seated beside two tigers. The deity instructed him never again to perform worship at the summit but instead at a lower point on the hillside. The tradition has continued ever since, lending the pilgrimage an enduring aura of mystery.
Another ritual has survived the passage of time. After the worship, devotees wait beneath a massive rock with a natural opening through which flowers and amla fruits are dropped. Local belief holds that whoever receives the offering first will have their wishes fulfilled the earliest.