Gaya
Pind Daan for the ancestors. Pitru Paksha fills the town for a fortnight every year.
Gaya belt
Places around Gaya
- Vishnupad Temple, Gaya: Lord Vishnu's footprint, and the great seat of pind daan
- Akshayavat: It is where the final, concluding pinda of the Gaya Shraddha is offered, making it the last stop of the...
- Sita Kund: Pilgrims come because Sita is held to have performed Pind Daan here for her father-in-law Dashratha...
- Ramshila Hill: Rama is believed to have offered pinda on this hill, so mourners offer pindas here during Pitrapaksh
- Pretshila Hill: Devotees bathe in Brahma Kund and then perform pinda-daan on the hill for ancestors believed to be...
- Brahmayoni Hill: Hindus climb it in large numbers during Pitripaksha to offer at the hill and squeeze through the...
- Mangla Gauri Temple: It is counted among the eighteen Maha Shakti Peethas, the spot where Sati's breast fell, and newlyweds...
- Phalgu River ghats, Gaya: Tarpan and the riverbed pinda offerings of the Gaya Shraddha are made on these ghats
- Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, Gaya: Sikhs visit because both Gurus stopped here and taught that a person's own good deeds, not their...
- Bitho Sharif Dargah: Pilgrims come to fulfil vows and for healing, particularly for illness and for afflictions believed to...
- Shri Digamber Jain Mandir and Dharmshala, Durga Bari: It is the main Digambar Jain place of worship and pilgrim lodging in Gaya city
- Shri Parshvnath Digamber Jain Mandir, Ramna: Local and visiting Jains use it for daily darshan and puja
- Durga Bari: It is the focus of Gaya city's Durga Puja, organised by the Durga Bari Puja Committee
- Baba Koteshwar Nath Dham: Devotees come to worship the Sahastralingi Mahadev and the ancient peepal tree, above all on...
- Koncheswar Mahadev: It is a living Shiva temple and the finest surviving brick temple in Gaya district
- Kurkihar: Villagers and visitors worship the Pala-period stone images that remain in the Devi temple; students of...
- Gurpa Hill: Buddhists come because Mahakasyapa is held to have died, or entered samadhi, here while waiting for the...
More to see and do
Litti chokha
The dish people mean when they say Bihari food.
Wheat dough balls filled with spiced sattu, baked over coals and dipped in ghee, eaten with chokha of roasted brinjal, potato and tomato.
Sattu sharbat in summer
What Bihar drinks against the heat: roasted gram, water, lemon and salt, sold from carts on every corner.
Sattu stirred into water with cumin, coriander, green chilli and black salt, salty or sweet.
Tilkut on Ramna Road
Gaya's winter sweet, pounded from sesame and jaggery by hand for about 150 years, and eaten at Makar Sankranti.
Sesame and sugar or jaggery beaten flat in the shops along Ramna Road. The street smells of it from November to February.
Anarsa of Gaya
The rice-and-sesame sweet Bihar Tourism places at Gaya.
Powdered rice, sugar and khoya, rolled in white sesame and fried.
The stone carvers of Patharkatti
A village of stone carvers descended from the Gaur craftsmen Ahilyabai Holkar brought from Rajasthan to build the Vishnupad temple; GI-registered in June 2026.
Carved idols, Buddha figures, bowls, pestles and plates in local stone, by some 500 to 700 artisan families, about 35 km from Gaya.
Pitrapaksh Mela
The fortnight when families from all over India come to Gaya to offer pind to their ancestors.
The whole city becomes the rite: the Vishnupad, the Phalgu ghats, Akshayavat and Pretshila fill from dawn.
Magahi paan
The betel leaf of old Magadh, soft enough to melt in the mouth, grown under thatch in Nawada, Gaya, Aurangabad and Nalanda.
Leaves grown in bareja, hut-like shelters against heat and cold, by Chaurasia families around Deuri in Hisua block. Folded with fennel and cardamom after a meal.
Dahi chura on Makar Sankranti
The Makar Sankranti breakfast across Bihar: flattened rice, curd and jaggery, with tilkut after.
Chura, dahi and gur eaten together on the morning of Sankranti, with tilkut.
Thekua, the Chhath prasad
The moulded wheat-and-jaggery biscuit every Bihari home fries for Chhath.
Whole wheat, ghee and jaggery pressed in a wooden saancha and fried; offered to the sun at Chhath and shared after.
Yatras through Gaya
- Sikh Yatra: Guru Gobind Singh was born in Patna and spent his first years here
- Sufi Yatra: Khanqahs and dargahs that have taken visitors of every faith for six hundred years
- Gaya Ji and the Rite for Ancestors: Where Hindus come to release the dead, and have for two thousand years
- Ramayan Yatra: Sita's Mithila, and the road Ram took through it
- Silence and Stillness: Bihar is where meditation was taught first, and it is still taught here free
Experiences
- Pind daan at Gaya: The rite for the dead that brings families to Gaya from everywhere
- Pitrapaksh Mela: A fortnight when the whole of Gaya belongs to the dead
Tirtham can arrange here
A guide who knows the places, a car with a driver we have met, and a stay nearby. Tell us your dates and we call to confirm.
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