The name literally translated in English would mean a "salt water well" or a "well with water that is salty to taste"... its an abandoned well in a moderately dense forested area about 80 meters off the road. There is a small old shed by the road, dilapidated, made of stone and rotting timber, no roof now.
But as the story goes, when hunting was rampant in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and that was only a generation ago, this was a place open for a peculiar challenge! And the shed would be a place for the hunters to rest and curse their luck!
There are a lot of spotted deer that can be seen around this place even now. And the challenge was to be able to injure or kill a deer in that area. A number of hunters tried and failed. No one could hit a deer (or any other animal) in that area.
The locals say there are spirits that protect animals there. In fact they claim that on "amavasya" (no moon) nights the spirits appear as shadowy deer around the well and can be seen frolicking around it...
So is the legend of "khaari baawari"...
8 comments:
Hmmm, do you have pics - lots of them. I could write a creepy story around that spot. Is that a well in the pic ? Are the stones coloured or do they have a mineral deposit on them? The water is khara, which means it must be having high mineral content ....
Oops sorry, these things fascinate me
No, that solitary image was taken by a friend earlier this year. The water must contain lots of minerals to make it taste salty... you are right about that... and as far as weaving a story around the well, you don't need images for that your description is good enough Ritu :-)
amazing pic there Ravin ..perfect material for me to spin a yarn around ..In lucky's granny's village we have a similar well ,very deep,the water looks like a dirty dinner plate in it .A mesh is covering it to avoid accidents .guess many villages have such places .it sure must be haunted :).thanks for sharing
good to see you writing again ..keep it up :)
Thanks Tiku, there is a well on our property that was said to be haunted when we moved in. That was in 1973. However we haven't seen anything extraordinary to date... I guess the spirits moved out as we moved in ;-)
Fascinating tale Ravin!....very well depicted!:-)
if i had my way, id have a lot of 'khaari baawdis' created across the length and breadth of the entire indian subcontinent.. so that all our precious fauna wud be protected!
Not a bad idea at all :-)
There is a similar hot water spring on the old Mandla road. No hunter stories there, but they say animal spirits roam there!
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