Rajrappa

Rajrappa lies in Ramgarh district, about 20 km from Ramgarh and 70 km from Ranchi, where the Bhairavi, locally called Bhera, drops about 9 metres into the Damodar. The gorge here is a textbook example of a river that has cut a young, deep valley inside an older, broad one.

Most visitors come for the Chhinnamasta temple, which draws an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 people a day. Its headless goddess stands on the bodies of Kamdev and Rati on a bed of lotus, and the temple is known for its Tantric style. Ten further temples, among them shrines to Surya and Shiva, surround it, and animal sacrifice is still offered on Tuesdays, Saturdays and at Kali Puja. Santal and other tribal pilgrims also come, mostly in December, to immerse the ashes of their dead in the Damodar, a place their songs call Thel Kopi Ghat.