Rajiv Lochan of Rajim: The Vishnu Who Stands Where Three Rivers Meet

Rajim's setting is the reason it is called the Prayag of Chhattisgarh. Three rivers meet here, the Mahanadi, the Pairi and the Sondur, and the confluence gives the site the same status a triveni gives anywhere in India.

The most striking feature of the site is not on the bank but in the water. Kuleshwar Mahadev, an old Shiva temple, stands on a raised platform in the middle of the riverbed. In the dry season devotees walk to it across the sand. In the monsoon the river rises around it, and the temple stands surrounded by water.

This pairing gives Rajim its character:

• Rajiv Lochan on the bank, Vishnu, the presiding deity of the town
• Kuleshwar Mahadev in the river, Shiva, reached across the sand
• A Hari Har kshetra, where both are worshipped in the same visit, which is how devotees describe it

The local tradition also folds Ram into the landscape, since Chhattisgarh identifies itself with the Ram Van Gaman Path, and Rajim is counted among the places associated with the exile route. Shrines to Ram, Sita and Lakshman stand within the complex.

What this produces is a sangam site where a devotee can complete Vaishnava and Shaiva darshan and a river snan in a single morning, which is exactly why the town became a pilgrimage centre in the first place.

The town's name is explained by a katha that devotees repeat with some pride, because of who it is about.

In the telling, a woman named Rajim, from the Teli community of oil pressers, was a devotee of the deity here. The versions differ in detail. In some, she used the oil she pressed in the temple's service. In others, the deity accepted her offering when others were refused, or the temple was completed through her devotion and modest means when grander patrons could not.

What is consistent is the point of the story: the town carries the name of a working woman, not of a king or a saint. The deity is Rajiv Lochan, and the place is Rajim, after her.

This is a recurring pattern in Indian temple towns, where the memory that survives locally is often not the one recorded in inscriptions. The inscription at Rajim records a ruler and a dynasty. The name on every signboard records the woman who pressed oil.

Devotees in Chhattisgarh mention the Rajim Telin katha in the same breath as the Kaushalya connection at Chandkhuri and the Shabari association at Shivrinarayan. Together they describe a devotional landscape in which the figures the state chooses to remember are, more often than not, women outside the centres of power.

The Rajim Punni mela is Chhattisgarh's largest religious fair, running from Magh Purnima to Mahashivratri, roughly a fortnight to a month depending on the calendar.

What happens during it:

• The riverbed between the temples becomes the mela ground, with the sand carrying tents, stalls and stages
• Devotees take snan at the sangam and then complete darshan at Rajiv Lochan and Kuleshwar
• Sadhus and akhadas camp for the duration, and the fair has been developed in recent decades as a large state supported event
• Cultural programmes, satsang and pravachan run through the days
• The fair concludes at Mahashivratri, with the emphasis shifting to Kuleshwar Mahadev in the river

The seasonal logic is worth noticing. The mela is held in the dry months precisely because the riverbed is walkable then. A fair that fills a river with people is only possible for a few weeks a year, and the calendar was built around that fact long before it became an organised event.

Outside the mela, Rajim is quiet. Magh and Phalgun are the busy months, monsoon is when the sangam is at its most dramatic and least accessible, and the winter months from November to February are the most comfortable for an unhurried visit.

Rajim is not visited alone by local devotees. It sits at the centre of a panchkoshi circuit, the traditional five point circumambulation found around many old temple towns.

The Rajim panchkoshi covers five Shiva shrines around the town, traditionally walked in a fixed order, with Kuleshwar Mahadev at the centre. Villages in the surrounding area hold the individual shrines, and the walk is done particularly around Mahashivratri.

Beyond the circuit, the wider region holds several sites worth combining:

• Chandkhuri, with the Kaushalya Mata temple, about ninety minutes away
• Sirpur, the ancient site on the Mahanadi with the Lakshman temple in brick, one of the most important archaeological sites in central India
• Shivrinarayan, associated with the Shabari katha, further downstream
• Bhoramdeo, the eleventh century Shiva temple in Kabirdham district, often called the Khajuraho of Chhattisgarh
• Dongargarh and Ratanpur, the state's major Devi shrines

A practical route for a devotional trip through Chhattisgarh runs Raipur as base, Chandkhuri and Rajim on one day, Sirpur on another, and Bhoramdeo or Dongargarh depending on time. The distances are moderate and the roads are reasonable, but sites are spread out, so plan by district rather than by kilometre.

Rajim is an easy day trip from Raipur and rewards an early start.

• Distance - about forty five kilometres from Raipur, roughly an hour and a quarter by road
• Best time - November to February for weather, and the Punni mela between Magh Purnima and Mahashivratri for the full scale of the pilgrimage
• Kuleshwar Mahadev - reachable across the sand in the dry season. During and after the monsoon, check locally before attempting to cross, and never enter the riverbed when water levels are high or rising.
• What to carry - flowers, tulsi, coconut and bel patra for the two temples, plus sun protection for the open riverbed
• Timings - the temples follow morning and evening worship hours with a midday break, so plan around it
• Etiquette - remove footwear, avoid photography in the sanctum, and treat the carved pillars and panels as protected heritage rather than backdrops

One suggestion that changes the visit. Do Rajiv Lochan first, then walk out to Kuleshwar and stand there for a while. The temple in the riverbed, with the sangam around it and the old town behind, is the image people carry away from Rajim, and it takes a few minutes standing still to register why the place has been considered sacred for over a thousand years.