Ashokastami Mela at Unakoti

A genuine long-standing pilgrimage rather than a manufactured event, though the mela around it is organised and amplified by the state.

Unakoti is a Shaiva pilgrimage site of seventh to ninth century rock-cut images set into forested hillside, and the mela is its principal annual gathering.

The core ritual is a holy dip at Sitakunda, a natural reservoir fed by a spring at the site. Around the bathing the state runs a full mela with decorated gates, illuminations and stalls.

The dip at Sitakunda, then darshan of the carvings.

Bathing at the spring-fed kund on Ashokastami is held to be especially purifying.

The rock-cut images at Unakoti date from between the seventh and ninth centuries, and the site has drawn Shaiva pilgrims for centuries.