The Bua Rani Kanwari Dham
The Bua Rani Kanwari Dham is a temple complex of the village deity called 'Bua Kanwari' (Virgin Deity) where newlyweds go for blessings before entering the village.
Folklore of the Bua Kanwari
Name of Kanwari village is after the 'Bua Kanwari' i.e. Paternal Aunt who is virgin. Bua means paternal aunt and Kumari means virgin girl which is pronounced as kunwari or kanwari on the local Haryanvi dialect of the Hindi language. Bua Kanwari was a daughter of this village.
As per stories passed down by generations, she went out with her domestic animals to take them out in the fields for a feed, when she was returning, she heard that two marriage parties have arrived to marry her (due to some unknown confusion). She was so ashamed of this that she prayed to god to be turned into stone, she started to turn into stone starting from her feet. One of the groom rushed to her on horse and her upper torso was still flesh while her lower body had already turned into stone. Groom quickly used his sword to cut her body in half and took her upper (still in flesh) with him.
This temple now has an ancient statue of lower portion (below torso) of Bua Kumari. Recently villagers have renovated this temple, during renovation they dug up to several feet and found many broken statues. These are now kept underneath the new chamber for main deity/statue.
Bua Kanwari is very prominent and she is so revered that every groom from this village will go and pray during Nikasi which is a Hindu wedding ceremony where groom from village goes and prays to village/family deity before leaving with marriage party to proceed to bride's village. Similarly when he returns to village with his bride, both will go to Bua Kanwari's temple to seek blessings. During this ceremony, bride will bring clay (mitti) seven times from nearby Johad and put it on a mound next to the temple.
Location of the Bua Rani Kanwari Dham temple complex is wikimap.