India, Oct. 19 -- While Gujarat's Navratri celebrations often unfold on sprawling garba grounds filled with music and dancers, a quieter, centuries-old tradition takes place in the narrow lanes of Shahpur, Ahmedabad. Here, on the eighth night of Navratri, men gather in colourful sarees, vermilion bindis on their foreheads, to perform garba in honour of Sadu Mata, a woman revered by the Barot community.

The ritual, observed at Sadu Mata Ni Pol, is rooted in a story of sacrifice and a community's enduring search for forgiveness. Locals trace the tradition back more than 200 years, to a time when Sadu Mata's beauty is said to have drawn the attention of Ahmedabad's ruler.

According to Tushar Barot, a local resident, the ruler ordered that...