At a glance :

Region : Maharashtra, Kolhapur

Occasion : Ray's of the sun bow on the Goddess Mother's feet.

Dedicated To : Laxmi Goddess

Days of Celebration : First February, Eleventh November, Thirty First January, Second February, Ninth and Tenth November.

This festival is one of the famous and celebrated with high enthusiasm festival in district Kolhapur's Mahalakshmi Temple of Maharashtra state. The temple of Mahalaxmi which is located in the Kolhapur district is a master example of stone carved Hindu temple. There are millions of pilgrims which every year visit this holy temple and mostly in the Kiran Utsav festival. Pilgrims which give visit to this temple are come from different parts of the world. There are many festivals which celebrated in this temple; Kiran Utsav is one of them but very much important and unique. Kiran means rays of Sun; in this Utsav, rays of the sun directly cow on the Mother Goddess Mahalakshmi's feet via a small window, the wonder of this Utsav is that this Temple built in that way that the straight rays of the sun fall on the feet of idol. This uniqueness about this festival makes this Utsav different from other festivals. This Sun rays enters in the temple for some specific period thirty first January, first February and November ninth, tenth and eleventh; on this specific days you can take the darshan of this wonder. During this Utsav, Mahalaxmi idol is worshipped with lots of energy.

For this special festival, the temple of Mahalaxmi is very nicely decorated which adds the more beauty in this Utsav. There are millions of devotees and pilgrims come and participate in this Utsav from entire the world. They do many ritual pujas and worship the Goddess. People come from much far distance just to experience the wonder of this Mahalaxmi temple's architecture. When the Sun rays fall on the Mother Mahalaxmi's feet, it looks like even Sun god is also worshipping the Goddess by touching her feet. During this Utsav, whole population of Kolhapur district, come to see the divine beauty of the Mother Goddess; because this type of magic they won't get to see anywhere in the world. if you planning to participate in this Utsav, then there is no worry about traveling, Kolhapur is very well developed district in transportation by rail, air and by road. It is connected with the entire major around places of the Maharashtra state. For local travel, you can do journey by their buses, autos and also taxis, which are available in large amount.