Śrī Khoḍiyārmātā Ākhyan In the late
8th century in the
Maitraka kingdom, a
Cāraṇ named Mamadiya Gaḍhvī 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 Śiva temple in the wilderness to fast and pray for children. On the 8th day Śiva appeared and granted Gaḍhvī 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.
Gohil dynasty In Saurāṣṭra the chief of
Sihor was Gohil Śādulsīnhjī; one day a Cāraṇ visited him and sang in praise of Khoḍiyār, who he said was a form of
Ambikā-
Bhavānī. The next day Śādulsīnhjī went to Khoḍiyār's birthplace hoping to get a darśan 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 kuldevī of the
Gohil dynasty. ==Temples==