Golu Devta and the Wooden Horse

King Jhal Rai of the Katyuri line had seven queens but no heir. Out hunting, he met Kalinka, a woman of great strength and goodness, and married her. When she was to give birth, the jealous queens blindfolded her, put a stone in place of her newborn son, and threw the baby into a cage in the river.

A fisherman found the cage and raised the boy as his own. When the child asked for a horse, the fisherman made him one of wood — and the boy, it is said, made it come alive.

One day the boy rode his wooden horse to the river where the seven queens were bathing and tried to make it drink. They laughed: 'Fool, how can a wooden horse drink water?'

He answered: 'If a woman can give birth to a stone, why can't a wooden horse drink water?'

The words reached the king. The truth came out, Kalinka was honoured, and the boy became king — remembered as a ruler of perfect justice. Today Golu Devta is worshipped at Chitai, Ghorakhal and Champawat, where people who have been wronged write their petitions to him, and offer bells when justice is done.