Villagers parade patel on a donkey to appease the Rain God
FP PHOTO

Ujjain: Villagers in Ujjain are coming up with novel ways of appeasing Indradev (Lord Indra).

The farmers in the district are a concerned lot as the indifference of the weather may spell doom for their crop. The farmers are worried that their entire soybean crop may get damaged while other people are troubled by the humidity.

Compelled by the uncertainty of monsoon people are adopting myriad ways to appease the rain God, Indra.

Recently, people of a village paraded patel (village head) and the husband of the sarpanch paraded on a donkey in a procession on the beats of drums.

The villagers took out a symbolic funeral procession with drums and made the village headman sit facing away from donkey’s head. They said person on donkey were made to take rounds around a symbolic dead body. Then after they performed the last rites of the effigy with rituals and prayed to Indradev for rain.

The villagers of Unhel tehsil have adopted this trick to evoke the Rain God. They are counting on the prevailing superstition in the area which their elders also followed.

“We are following what our elders have done. It certainly has an effect. It will soon rain here,” claimed Ramlal.

Residents say that on Monday they will all celebrate ‘Ujjaini’ festival, in which all the villagers will prepare food in the open and meditate under the sun.