Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr is a Hindu folk goddess worshiped in Gujarat and Rajasthan states in India.
In the late 8th century in the Maitraka kingdom, a CÃÂraá¹ named Mamadiya Gaá¸Âhvë lived near the capital of Vallabhi. He had close relations to the king but no children. The merchants of the kingdom were jealous of Mamadiya, so they told the royal priest (purohit) to tell the queen that to look upon an infertile man runs the risk of becoming infertile oneself. The queen thus convinced the king to banish the bard from the royal court.
Mamadiya then went to a à Âiva temple in the wilderness to fast and pray for children. On the 8th day à Âiva appeared and granted Gaá¸Âhvë seven daughters and a son. Several years later the girls were playing on a hill when they suddenly had a thirst for the blood and hunger for the flesh of buffaloes, which happened to be at the bottom of the hill. The girls raced down and tore the largest buffalo apart and ate his flesh and blood. The girls become infamous as they ate more and more buffaloes.
The king of Vallabhi did not practice buffalo sacrifice but instead used buffaloes to fight in sport with other kings with the stakes being land. Once the king's finest buffalo was missing, and the king and his soldiers eventually found the seven sisters gorging themselves on the buffalo. The king ordered the girls to be burned alive, but a voice from heaven said "'You unjustly chased our father for his barrenness: now, your own line will have no issue'". The king begged for mercy and he was given the option of having children if he "'married among the people'".
When the girls grew up they left home together, but the youngest named Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr was lame and could not keep up with the others. She fell upon the ground and prayed to the goddess Jagdambàto take her to her realm. However, goddesses told her from heaven that she was given a limp for a purpose, and they she had all the goddess' divine powers and would become the greatest of the sisters.
RàDÃÂyas of the Chudasama dynasty ruling at JunÃÂgaá¸Âh and his wife SomÃÂldë were childless, and as a result of SomÃÂldë's prayers to Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr, they were granted a son. Soon the king of Gujarat invaded JunÃÂgaá¸Âh, killed DÃÂyas, and appointed a governor. SomÃÂldë entrusted the care of her baby son, Navghaá¹Â, to her maidservant and then committed satë.
The maidservant took Navghaá¹ to an Ahër chief in southern SaurÃÂá¹£á¹Âra, who raised Navghaá¹ amongst his own children, including his daughter JÃÂsal. However, the governor of JunÃÂgaá¸Âh suspected that DÃÂyas' son was still alive and ordered his death. The Ahër chief admitted he had the boy, but sent his own son to be killed instead of Navghaá¹Â, and eventually became close with the governor.
When the time for JÃÂsal's marriage came in 1025 CE, her marriage was celebrated at JunÃÂgaá¸Âh and the governor's soldiers became drunk. The Ahër chief had a dream in which Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr had told him the location of buried treasure. The chief used the treasure to buy weapons to overthrow the governor while his soldiers were drunk at JÃÂsal's wedding feast. The Ahër chief then placed Navghaá¹ on the throne, with JÃÂsal placing the tikàon his forehead with her own finger blood. Thus Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr became the clan goddess (kuldevë) of the Cuá¸ÂÃÂsamas.
Years later when Navghaá¹ was on campaign in Sindh, he met a CÃÂraá¹ girl who was the incarnation of Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr. She caused the waters of the Rann of Kachh to part to let Navghaá¹Â's army pass. After defeating the Sà «mrÃÂs of Sindh, Navghaá¹ built a temple to Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr in Jà «nÃÂgaá¸Âh.
In SaurÃÂá¹£á¹Âra the chief of Sihor was Gohil à ÂÃÂdulsënhjë; one day a CÃÂraá¹ visited him and sang in praise of Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr, who he said was a form of AmbikÃÂ-BhavÃÂnë. The next day à ÂÃÂdulsënhjë went to Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr's birthplace hoping to get a darà Âan of her. At her birthplace he met an old woman who he realized was the goddess, and after pressing her she revealed herself in her form as a young woman standing on a crocodile with a trident in hand. She told him to build a temple to her nearby on a small hill near a spring marked with a hand in red. Thus forth she became the kuldevë of the Gohil dynasty.
In 1875, Monier Williams visited a shrine to Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr in a village in rural Gujarat. He noted that when the disease broke out in the village, Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr was propitiated with many offerings, including those of animal meat and blood.
In recent years Khoá¸ÂiyÃÂr, along with other goddesses of western India, had become vegetarian and thus less fierce in character. Animal sacrifice was banned in Gujarat in 1971.