The Blowhard
08-22-2002, 06:04 AM
100 children briefly buried alive
By Bhagwan Singh in Madras, India
August 22, 2002
MORE than 100 children were buried alive for about a minute as part of a ritual to appease two Hindu goddesses in a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a Hindu priest said.
The ritual, organised once every five years, was held yesterday at Perayur village, about 500 kilometres from Madras, Tamil Nadu's state capital.
Local lore has it that the festival has been organised regularly for the past 400 years to propitiate two ferocious female deities, Muthukuzhi Mariamman and Kaliamman, both incarnations of the Hindu goddess of destruction, Kali.
According to Kali Raj, secretary of the ritual's organising committee, all 106 children who took part in yesterday's ceremony, known as "Kuzhi Maatru Thiruvizha" or "Festival of emerging from the pit", were fine but exhausted by their experience.
"More than 8,000 girls and young men have gone through this ritual of live burial at this temple in the last 400 years and we have not had a single mishap recorded," Raj said.
The ceremony was essentially a "thanksgiving" service offered by parents of those children who had been suffering from chronic diseases, while others took part in the ritual to show their gratitude for being blessed with an heir, he said.
Yesterday's ritual, which began in the early hours of the morning, was completed in about five hours.
Children, wrapped in cloths dipped in turmeric water, were brought by parents in a procession to the beating of drums and accompanied by male and female priests.
The children, who were almost unconscious after going through the elaborate preparations for the ritual, were carried by their maternal uncles.
The preparations for the ritual included a 30-day fast, intensive prayer sessions, abstention from smoking, drinking and even watching movies. These strict procedures were followed by the entire family.
Just before the ceremony, the children were bathed, after which the chief priest sprinkled holy water over them.
If any child does not become unconscious by the time all the preparations for the ritual are complete, the family is fined 1,000 rupees (about $35) for "blasphemy," a temple priest said.
After arriving at the temple, each family placed its child in a half-metre deep pit, which was then covered with earth, leaves, thorns and flowers, to the chanting of verses from sacred texts.
The parents then broke coconuts and lit camphor lamps as offerings to the deities. Soon afterwards on a signal from the priest, the pits were quickly opened and the children lifted out.
The turmeric cloth was lifted off their faces and some water sprinkled over their faces to revive them, amid loud incantations in praise of the deities.
According to Masanam Pillai, the chief priest who presided over the rituals yesterday, the ceremony symbolised the child's rebirth under divine rejuvenation.
To take part in the ritual, girls should not have attained puberty while boys needed to be unmarried and usually in the age group of four to 20.
According to Kali Raj, the next pit festival will be held in five years. The last one in 1996 ended in violence with some of the local organisers objecting to the presence of reporters at the ceremony.
Heavy police deployment this time ensured the festival passed off peacefully.
Agence France-Presse
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By Bhagwan Singh in Madras, India
August 22, 2002
MORE than 100 children were buried alive for about a minute as part of a ritual to appease two Hindu goddesses in a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a Hindu priest said.
The ritual, organised once every five years, was held yesterday at Perayur village, about 500 kilometres from Madras, Tamil Nadu's state capital.
Local lore has it that the festival has been organised regularly for the past 400 years to propitiate two ferocious female deities, Muthukuzhi Mariamman and Kaliamman, both incarnations of the Hindu goddess of destruction, Kali.
According to Kali Raj, secretary of the ritual's organising committee, all 106 children who took part in yesterday's ceremony, known as "Kuzhi Maatru Thiruvizha" or "Festival of emerging from the pit", were fine but exhausted by their experience.
"More than 8,000 girls and young men have gone through this ritual of live burial at this temple in the last 400 years and we have not had a single mishap recorded," Raj said.
The ceremony was essentially a "thanksgiving" service offered by parents of those children who had been suffering from chronic diseases, while others took part in the ritual to show their gratitude for being blessed with an heir, he said.
Yesterday's ritual, which began in the early hours of the morning, was completed in about five hours.
Children, wrapped in cloths dipped in turmeric water, were brought by parents in a procession to the beating of drums and accompanied by male and female priests.
The children, who were almost unconscious after going through the elaborate preparations for the ritual, were carried by their maternal uncles.
The preparations for the ritual included a 30-day fast, intensive prayer sessions, abstention from smoking, drinking and even watching movies. These strict procedures were followed by the entire family.
Just before the ceremony, the children were bathed, after which the chief priest sprinkled holy water over them.
If any child does not become unconscious by the time all the preparations for the ritual are complete, the family is fined 1,000 rupees (about $35) for "blasphemy," a temple priest said.
After arriving at the temple, each family placed its child in a half-metre deep pit, which was then covered with earth, leaves, thorns and flowers, to the chanting of verses from sacred texts.
The parents then broke coconuts and lit camphor lamps as offerings to the deities. Soon afterwards on a signal from the priest, the pits were quickly opened and the children lifted out.
The turmeric cloth was lifted off their faces and some water sprinkled over their faces to revive them, amid loud incantations in praise of the deities.
According to Masanam Pillai, the chief priest who presided over the rituals yesterday, the ceremony symbolised the child's rebirth under divine rejuvenation.
To take part in the ritual, girls should not have attained puberty while boys needed to be unmarried and usually in the age group of four to 20.
According to Kali Raj, the next pit festival will be held in five years. The last one in 1996 ended in violence with some of the local organisers objecting to the presence of reporters at the ceremony.
Heavy police deployment this time ensured the festival passed off peacefully.
Agence France-Presse
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