For farmers, agriculture is a gamble with the monsoon and they take no chances. A look at some weird practices to usher in the rains
Villagers offering water to the dead in Vijayapura. (Supplied)
After a quick shower, farmer Rajashekhar Alugur joined others in Kalkeri village in Karnataka’s Vijayapura district, even as the summer sun showed no mercy in the morning.
The men had a task to accomplish for the entire village. A priest led them south to the cemetery on the village outskirts with a small tanker in tow. At the burial ground, some of them quickly cleaned a few graves, while a couple of men pulled out a blue hose from the tanker.
A small hole was soon dug with digging bars at the head-end of select graves into which the hose was placed. And then, the men opened the tap attached to the tanker.
In drought-like conditions, those who had died of unnatural deaths — accidents, suicides, etc — are in high demand in several villages in North Karnataka. Offering them water, villagers believe, appeases the rain gods who would open up the skies in eight to 10 days.
Only those who died of unnatural causes could appease the gods since they had died with their mouths open as if seeking a drop of water to wet their dry throats, 41-year-old Alugur explained why other graves were not offered water.
He, like others, however, could not offer a logic behind the practice. “We follow our ancestors who taught us to perform this ritual so that the entire village can expect rains within eight to 10 days,” he told South First.
“Normally, it rains in June, but if the monsoon is delayed, then it is time for the ritual,” Alugur added.
Outside the cemetery, the wind whipped up tufts of dust from the parched fields. The heat and dust did not affect Alugur and others — about 20 to 25 men — as they went on digging holes and offering water to the dead resting eternally six-foot below.
Alugur explained the ritual. Once the priest fixes the date and time, the idol of the village deity, Lord Hanuman, is bathed with 1,008 pots of water. The next day, a group of men led by the village priest heads to the cemetery.
The men pour water at the graveyard’s entrance and perform an aarti with burning pieces of camphor placed on an ash gourd. After smashing the ash gourd on the ground, they enter the cemetery.
“We look for graves of those who have died in the past one year. If they had died of unnatural causes their mouths will be open at the time of their death. We identify such graves and dig holes on the head-side and pour water through a hose from the tanker as Vaghesha Hiremath, the village priest, chants mantras,” he explained.
After completing the ritual at the cemetery, the men moved to two other graveyards nearby. “A total of 50 graves were offered water. We believe the rains will commence within eight to 10 days,” Alugur glanced heavenward.
The clear, blue sky over Kalkeri did not dent his belief. “We got rain soon after the ritual was done last year,” he said.
The bride and her groom were ignorant of the fact that they were a married couple now. They looked bewildered at the sudden attention they were getting.
The couple — two donkeys — were married off in the firm belief that Hagirabommanahalli in Vijayanagara would soon get monsoon showers. The village has not received good rains even as June came to a close. Whatever rain the farming village received were mango showers.
It was then that ancestral wisdom came into play.
On 26 June, the villagers decided to get two donkeys married and offer special prayers to the rain god like they do whenever the monsoon gets delayed.
The wedding was a proper one, complete with a haldi ceremony. The bride and the groom were selected carefully, and clad in fineries — dhoti and towels for the groom, and lehenga and dupatta for the bride.
Amid the chanting of mantras, the Jack and Jenny were garlanded and a mangalsutra — or the sacred thread — was tied in the presence of a sizeable number of villagers.
The villagers performed akshathe — showering rice and other grains — on the “newlyweds” before married women performed an aarti for the couple. A sumptuous feast followed before the couple was taken in a procession accompanied by traditional songs, drumbeats, and loud music.
The videos of the wedding held to appease the rain gods, went viral on social media.
The donkeys were not the only couple who were forced to get married to appease the rain gods.
At Jamga B in the Kalaburagi district, two frogs remained almost still and resigned to their fates as people sprinkled water, and decorated them with flowers, sandalwood paste, and red turmeric.
Women sang songs as the frogs “married” each other at the temple of the village deity, Sri Mahalakshmi.
After akshate, the guests partook in a grand feast. The frog wedding, the villagers believe, will appease the rain gods who will bless them with more rain so that their farming will flourish.
In Mandya, the groom and bride were playful. The villagers decided to get two boys married to each other on 23 June, so that the skies over the Gangenahalli village will open up.
While a boy dressed up as the groom, the other one was draped in a saree. Their wedding, too, was followed by a sumptuous spread.
“The villagers resorted to the age-old ritual to appease the rain gods, as their ancestors had taught them,” a news agency quoted a villager.
Historian Nanjaraj Urs said such practices are part of blind faith passed on to the present generation by their ancestors.
“If anyone questions these practices, the villagers will brand them ‘leftists.’ Even my parents and grandparents used to follow all these weird rituals, but I stopped performing even the death anniversary rituals of my father — and nothing changed,” he told South First.
“We used to go in a group to graveyards and have biscuits and bananas during the solar and lunar eclipses. Nothing happened to us. One has to move ahead in life, acquire knowledge, and evolve,” Urs said.
He added that people believe in superstitions since they are passed through generations. “They will perform those rituals diligently even if it doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Over the past few decades, North Karnataka regions have not received adequate rainfall except for the past four years. The major crops in the region are green gram, maize, cotton, paddy, millet, chilli, onions, chickpea, pigeon peas and groundnuts.
This year, the delay in monsoon halted farming activities in almost all regions in the state. The situation is no different in Gadag, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Shivamogga, Mysuru, Hassan, Belagavi, Dharwad, Chitradurga, and Davanagere .
Incidentally, June also saw the end of one superstition. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah junked “Vaastu” warnings that had been keeping the southern entrance of his office at Vidhana Soudha closed.
He reopened it on Monday, 26 June. Siddaramaiah had the door opened during his previous term as the chief minister as well.
The superstitious acts continue in the state despite the Assembly passing the Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill in 2017. The Act came into force in January 2020.
The Act bans performing black magic, inhumane act and evil practices in search of treasure or bounty, tantric acts which include physical and sexual activities/assault, practices such as parading humans naked, ostracising person/s in the name of rituals, and also encouraging inhumane acts during the rituals, exorcism, assaulting people under the pretext of exorcism, misinformation and creating a fear-mongering situation on the the pretexts of exorcising ghosts.
The law stipulates “imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than a year but which may extend to seven years, besides a fine that shall not be less than ₹5,000, but may be extended to ₹50,000” as punishment for violating the Act.
“Though the Act is in force, the government has not enforced it properly. The police will come into picture only if a murder or sexual assault is reported,” social activist Narasimhamurthy T told South First.
“The Anti-Superstition Act covers almost all activities and rituals practised across the state — some at temples, others practised by various tribes and villagers. These practices attract punishment, but no government wants to strongly enforce the Act,” he explained.
Narasimhamurthy held the government partially responsible for these practices continuing unabated. When politics alters itself in constituencies, people would follow such blind beliefs,” he said.
The activist then cited an example. Instead of inviting the President of India for the inaugural function of the newly constructed Parliament House, the heads of a particular religious matha were invited. If the government acts according to the law, and punishes a few people who practise such superstitions, then others would fall in line. But it does not happen here,” he further said.
“In 2010, a tantric performed a ritual in front of the Vidhan Soudha using a black rooster, egg, coins, tin foils, and spices. A few activists intervened and stopped it. However, it seems the government is a bit scared to ban such practices,” Narasimhamurthy said.
“Let the farmers do the same rituals like getting donkeys, frogs and even small boys married during the peak summer time in March-April so that we get rains,” he mocked.
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