FairIndian · Hindu
Sonepur Mela
Harihar Kshetra Mela
Next date
Tuesday, 24 November 2026
- Tithi at sunrise
- Full Moonuntil 20:23
- Nakshatra
- Krittikauntil 23:25
- Lunar month
- Kartik
- Sunrise
- 06:57Sunset 17:54
In short
A cattle fair a month long at the meeting of the Ganga and the Gandak, opening on Kartik Purnima.
The story
Sonepur is Harihar Kshetra, where the Gaj-Grah story is placed: an elephant caught by a crocodile in the river called on Vishnu until he came. The fair opens with the Kartik Purnima bathe and then runs for weeks as the largest livestock market in this part of Asia - cattle, horses, and until the law changed, elephants and birds.
Why it matters
What it sells has been narrowed by law over the last few decades, which is worth knowing before going: the elephant lines the fair was famous for are gone.
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