Bhopal, July 13: South of Kanpur in Bundelkhand to Khargaon in the Nimar region near Gujarat, women are ploughing the fields naked to please the rain gods.
As the prospect of a punishing drought looms large, desperate farmers are trying every trick in the book — from organising “marriage ceremonies” of frogs to asking women to plough the fields naked to please Indra, the god of rain.
In Rewa district, near Allahabad, a local circus was driven out because the authorities thought its presence was a “bad omen”. Local superstition has it that circus owners engrave some magical nail to prevent rain so that their business does not suffer.
Farmers in the Malwa region are busy collecting donations to organise “marriages” of frogs, believed to be auspicious and to result in good rain.
At the pilgrim centre of Ujjain, tantriks in Mahakal temple are holding a yagna for the skies to open up.
In Bundelkhand, dozens of women who have probably never stepped out of the house without a pallu covering their faces, went out to plough the fields naked as part of a well-established custom. Before they headed for the field, an elaborate all-woman Indra puja was performed.
The ritual, dating back several centuries, stipulates that women perform the act under the cover of darkness in secrecy. Rukmani Devi, the woman priest of Khajuraho, warns that if any woman is seen naked by a man, she would be held guilty of committing a sin. The sin can only be atoned by holding a feast for the entire village.
Given the meagre resources and abject poverty in the Bundelkhand region, spread between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the punishment could result in the ill-fated family paying off debts for the rest of their lives.
Hindus and Muslims jointly participate in the ritual. At Atraiya village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district in Bundelkhand, the event had the support of sarpanch Shabnam Bano who issued a directive to the men not to venture out on the night of July 6. The ritual passed off without a hitch but there is no sign of rain.
Water was not always scarce in Bundelkhand. In the past, farmers grew enough foodgrain and pulses and had water for irrigation. But as trees were cut down and the green cover depleted, soil erosion has made water the most critical resource. Rains have decreased, the water table has fallen, the soil has lost its richness and rituals such as this have become common.
In the Nimar region, Indra is locally called “Malan Dev” (god of giving). On Sunday night, about 60 women from Tangbarud village in Khargaon district gathered at a temple singing hymns in the local dialect in praise of the god of rain. After the puja ended, one woman, 38-year-old Sarita Devi, volunteered to go to the field to complete the ritual of ploughing naked.
