The Kenduli (Joydev Kenduli) fair is celebrated in which state?

The Joydev Kenduli Mela is held every year at Kenduli village in Birbhum district of West Bengal, on the bank of the Ajay river. It begins on Makar Sankranti (Poush Sankranti, in mid-January) and continues for several days.

Kenduli is traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jayadeva, the 12th-century Sanskrit poet who wrote the "Gita Govinda". This famous lyrical poem describes the love of Radha and Krishna and greatly influenced Indian music, dance (especially Odissi) and painting. Jayadeva is said to have been a court poet of the Sena king Lakshmana Sena of Bengal. (Some scholars believe his birthplace was Kenduli Sasan in Odisha instead, but the Birbhum fair is the famous one.)

The fair is best known as the largest gathering of Baul singers in Bengal. The Bauls are wandering mystic minstrels who sing about the divine within the human body and reject caste and formal religion. They play the ektara (one-stringed instrument) and the dotara. During the fair, Bauls from across Bengal and Bangladesh gather in akharas (camps) and sing through the night. The Baul tradition was proclaimed by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005 and is now on its Representative List.

Thousands of devotees also bathe in the Ajay river on Makar Sankranti and visit the Radha-Binod temple.

Other notable fairs of West Bengal include the Gangasagar Mela on Makar Sankranti, the Poush Mela at Santiniketan (December) and the Matua Maha Mela at Thakurnagar.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Odisha has the Rath Yatra and the Bali Jatra.
• ✗Bihar has the Sonepur Mela.
• ✗Jharkhand has the Shravani Mela at Deoghar.