How to Sponsor a Bhandara for the Kanwar Yatra

Every Sawan, a quiet wish stirs in many hearts: to feed the kanwariyas who walk barefoot for Lord Shiva by holding a bhandara in their honour. A bhandara is a free community feast — a langar where everyone who comes is fed together, seated on the ground, no questions asked. If you have searched for how to make a bhandara donation, how to sponsor a bhandara, or simply asked yourself bhandara kaise karvaye — 'how do I get a bhandara held?' — this guide is written for you. It explains what a bhandara truly is, what it costs, how one is organised, and the simplest way to sponsor a bhandara for the Kanwar Yatra at our free sewa shivir on NH-8 at Mahipalpur, New Delhi.

What is a bhandara, and why during the Kanwar Yatra?

A bhandara is anna daan — the gift of food — gathered into a shared feast. Devotees cook in great quantity and serve everyone who comes: rich and poor alike, seated together on the ground, with folded hands and a 'Bol Bam.' In North India during the holy month of Sawan, the bhandara moves out onto the highways, where sewa shivirs feed the endless river of kanwariyas walking to their Shiva temples. To hold a bhandara for the Kanwar Yatra is to place a warm plate in the hands of a devotee under a vow — one who has renounced comfort, walks often barefoot for a hundred kilometres or more, and carries sealed Ganga jal for the jalabhishek of Mahadev.

This is why a bhandara during Sawan is considered such a fruitful act of seva. Tradition holds that feeding one who walks for the Lord is, in effect, feeding Mahadev himself, for the Divine dwells within the devotee. Your bhandara is not merely a meal; it becomes part of the pilgrim's prayer.

Annadata sukhi bhava — may the giver of food ever be blessed with joy. To hold a bhandara for those who walk for Bhole is to feed the Lord himself.

Two ways to sponsor a bhandara

When people ask how to sponsor a bhandara, there are really two paths, and both are equally beautiful. The first is to organise your own bhandara from scratch — arranging the venue, ration, cooking and volunteers yourself. The second, far simpler for most people, is to sponsor a bhandara within an existing, running shivir like ours, where the kitchen, the volunteers and the pilgrims are already in place. You provide the daan; the shivir turns it into a feast the very same day. For a first-time giver, sponsoring within a trusted shivir is by far the easiest and most direct way to make sure your contribution actually reaches hungry kanwariyas.

How to organise a bhandara: the full picture

If you do wish to understand what organising a bhandara involves — bhandara kaise karvaye, from start to finish — it helps to see the whole picture. A bhandara is quiet, unglamorous, back-breaking work, and it begins long before the first pilgrim is served.

• 🔱A place and permission: a safe spot beside the pilgrim route, with any required local permission, water supply and space for people to sit and eat.
• 🔱Ration: sacks of atta, rice, dal, potatoes, onions, cooking oil, ghee, tea, sugar and milk, in quantities that surprise first-timers.
• 🔱Fuel and vessels: cooking gas or firewood, and huge cauldrons and tavas that one person alone cannot lift.
• 🔱Hands: enough volunteers to cut vegetables, roll rotis, stir the dal, brew tea, serve in rows, and wash utensils without pause.
• 🔱Water and rest: clean drinking water, cool sharbat in the heat, and a shaded place for tired bhakts to recover.
• 🔱Cleanliness and dignity: a serving area kept clean so every batch of pilgrims can eat with respect, and waste cleared responsibly.

Doing all of this alone, for the first time, on a busy highway, is genuinely hard — which is exactly why most well-wishers choose to sponsor a bhandara at an established shivir instead. You get the merit and the joy of the bhandara without the logistics, and not a rupee is wasted.

What does a bhandara cost?

The honest answer to 'what does a bhandara cost?' is: it depends entirely on how many people you wish to feed. There is no single fixed price, because a bhandara scales with the crowd. As a rough guide, at our shivir about ₹35 provides a full, warm meal for one bhakt. From there you can picture it simply: feeding a hundred pilgrims, five hundred, a thousand — the cost grows with the number of plates. A modest gift feeds several tired travellers; a larger daan can underwrite a big bhandara or a full day of langar from the pre-dawn tea to the small hours of the night.

Because every rupee flows into the same pot of ration, gas, water and shelter, you do not need to calculate anything precisely. Simply give what your heart and means allow, and tell us if you would like your daan to fund a bhandara of a particular size — we will happily arrange it and tell you how many were fed.

How a shivir turns your bhandara donation into seva

For over thirty years, Shiv Kavar Samiti has run a free Kanwar Sewa Shivir on the NH-8 highway at Mahipalpur, New Delhi — near IGI Airport, right on the route lakhs of kanwariyas walk toward Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan. We are not a large institution with paid staff; we are neighbours and volunteers who pool what we have, year after year. During Sawan the kitchen never truly rests, because kanwariyas walk through the cool of the night and keep arriving until the small hours. When you sponsor a bhandara here, your daan is turned, without delay, into ration, cooking gas, clean water, medicines and shelter — and into hot food in a pilgrim's hands.

None of this is done for wages. Our sewadars — shopkeepers, students, retired uncles and young men and women — take leave from their own lives for these days because they believe that serving a kanwariya is serving Shiva. Your gift is the fuel; their hands are the fire. What you give in the morning may well be in a bhakt's plate by nightfall.

He who feeds the hungry with a glad heart offers a worship greater than a thousand lamps. A bhandara held for Bhole is never lost.

Sponsor a bhandara in someone's name or memory

Many people wish to hold a bhandara to mark a special occasion — a birthday, an anniversary, a wish fulfilled — or in loving memory of someone who has passed. This is a beautiful and time-honoured reason to give. When you sponsor a bhandara at our shivir, we can dedicate it in the name you choose, and your loved one's name will be joined to every plate your daan feeds and every 'Har Har Mahadev' that rises from a fed and rested pilgrim. Just share the name with us when you give, or message us on WhatsApp.

How to sponsor a bhandara for Sawan 2026

Sponsoring a bhandara with us is quick and direct. Visit our Donate page at /donate to give online through our secure Razorpay payment gateway — you can pay by card, UPI, netbanking or wallet. Choose an amount, or tell us the size of bhandara you would like to sponsor, and it becomes a feast for kanwariyas the very same day. If you prefer a larger, recorded gift, transfer by NEFT, IMPS or RTGS to the samiti's account at Punjab National Bank — Account Number 0149000104323988, IFSC PUNB0014900, Khan Market branch. After giving, a short WhatsApp message to +91 98189 08237 with your name, the amount and the date helps us confirm your bhandara and tell you how many bhakts it fed.

A note on giving with an honest heart

One thing we always say plainly: Shiv Kavar Samiti does not provide 80G or any tax-exemption certificate, and your bhandara donation is not tax-deductible. Please give purely as a voluntary daan — not for a receipt or a rebate, but for the joy of feeding pilgrims who walk for Bhole Nath. That is the true spirit of a bhandara: food offered freely, expecting nothing, seated together as one family before the Lord. Bol Bam, Har Har Mahadev.