Thousands of devotees, including women and children, from all sections of the society thronged the temple of Baba Kala Mehar, a local deity, near this village in the forest area and in a unique tradition offered drinks to propitiate the deity. The surroundings of the temple has a reserved forest area of more than 2000 acres, which is said to have been reserved for constructing a temple of this dei
ty by the erstwhile King of Faridkot. This area was also used for hunting by the landlords of this area until recently the union government and the state government strictly banned hunting in the reserved forest areas. Liquor flows like water on this day every month, said RS Sandhu who visits the deity temple every month. The atmosphere here was like a traditional 'mela' with many stalls of toys for children, eatables, other petty items of use for the rural folk. As per an estimate more than 50,000 people had visited this temple, today. The devotees believe that offering a bottle of liquor could work wonders. The fame of this temple still under construction has in the recent past travelled far and wide with crowds pouring in with bottles of liquors from all parts of the state. After offering the liquor to the deity many people were sitting on temple premises seen drinking liquor with 'dal' prepared in the langar. Baba Kala Mehar is said to have once led the 'Sandhu' clan and then the Sandhus started worshiping him. According to Panani, Sandhus ruled the region between Sindh and Jhelum. In around 739 AD, their King Pun Dev had a number of battles with the Arabs in which eventually the Sandhus got defeated and left Sindh. Originating from Sindh, this clan came to be known as 'Sindhu' and later 'Sandhu'. Griffen, when once famine struck North-West Rajputana in the medieval period, the Sandhus moved towards Punjab in search of green areas. Certain historians claim that this clan came towards India along with the invading armies of Mahmood Ghaznavi but the present day historians hardly believe this theory. The Sandhu clan worships Baba Kala Mehar or Kala Pir who was the Clan's Chief at one time. It is said that in the Faridkot region, once a dispute broke out among Baba Kala Mehar and the Bhattis. The Bhattis conspired against Baba Kala Mehar and poisoned him. Baba Mehar regained strength and attacked the Bhattis when suddenly he was stuck on the head by them but still kept on fighting till he killed the attackers. Later Baba Mehar also died and the entire Sandhu clan since then regards this great ancestor of theirs with deep respect. Among the famous personalities from this clan in the history include Bhai Bala a famous Sikh during the times of Guru Nanak and the Indian freedom struggle leader Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
