Two minor girls married off to frogs
PUDUCHERRY: In a bizarre ritual, two minor girls, both seven, from the remote Pallipudupet village in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district were married
off to frogs on Friday night. The ceremony, an annual feature during the Pongal (harvest) festival, is conducted "to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village''.
The girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery -- gilded sarees and gold jewellery -- married the frog 'princes' in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers.
Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the temple priests garlanded the brides and tied the magalsutras on behalf of the frogs pronouncing the two as wives of the amphibians before the sacred fire at the auspicious hour.
The villagers threw themselves into the ceremonies with gusto. While residents living in the western part of the village acted as relatives of the brides and those from the eastern part play-acted as relatives of the grooms. The ceremonies had all the usual elements of a traditional marriage including a sumptuous feast.
However, unlike the fairy tale `Frog Prince', where the ugly toad turns into a handsome prince when the princess kisses it, the Villupuram village belles bid their amphibian grooms goodbye and lead a normal life thereafter. As for the terrified frogs, they are thrown back into the temple ponds after the ceremony.
Earlier the 'relatives' of the brides came in a procession to the grooms' houses in the eastern part of the village to fix the marriage and later went to the temple pond to catch the frogs. The frog princes were tied to long sticks decorated with garlands for the marriage ceremonies.
An elderly woman of the village said the ritual was practised traditionally for several generations to ward off evil spirits and diseases from the village.
Villupuram district collector R Palaniswamy told TOI that he had deputed a team led by the district social welfare officer to visit the village and submit a detailed report. "The district administration proposes to evolve comprehensive schemes to motivate and enlighten the villagers against such evil and ignorant practises," he said. But all these years the strange practice has been going on unchecked.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Two_minor_girls_married_off_to_frogs_...
Brothers sharing wives is still practiced in remote areas of Tibet etc.
This unique cultural practice has evolved because there is a shortage of females and the areas are remote.
Come to thinjk of it, with the shortage of expat women in Qatar, perhaps there is scope here..
r-7 ... , lol ....why do you want to see the honeymoon pics ? I know you are not from the frog family ;-)
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Any pics of the honeymoon ?! :P
Probably itz same as 2 or 3 wives sharing a husband....
I know itz not acceptable in any form..
The brothers sharing wives things is true, although I dont know where in India it is practised.
One Indian guy came up to us handing out candy. We asked him why and he said his wife had just given birth. We all looked at each other strangely as he has been offshore for the last 18 months in Qatar while his wife is in India..... He told us not to worry, his brother is "taking care" of her.
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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"
There have been quite a few times I think, but on balance we tend to curtiously disagree on quite a few of the fundamentals.
"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365
not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the
many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers
were given. Satan - 10."
I have to agree with you on that one.
"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365
not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the
many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers
were given. Satan - 10."
apart from Pakistan, dont know in which other countries
this marriage takes place.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/24/polygamy.investigation/index.html
here you go, Speed!
that that these girls has to live with the frogs for life and sleep with them on the bed ....
I agree with zayd... this is purely their culture and ritual practice.
I am forgetting the name of a village where 3 - 4 brothers share one wife and no one know who the children belongs to but that is their part of culture and tradition !
I would say this is all because of lack of Education :-/
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lollllllll lollllllllllllll ho ho ho ho ho
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its really horrible....
when these villagers will get lil common sense n stop these non-sense things..........
In this instance a harmless ritual steeped in history.A bit like Morris Dancing I suppose.
And me...a cute bat-vampire?
.
I am treated only with garlic, silver and wooden spear?
.
.
.
I am not as thunk as you drink I am!
By the time they got the money...divorce papers. LOL
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
BritExpat.. Yes thanks for the details like I said I can only remember so much it was a few years ago.. Not as much travelled as you my fellow expat.
lol
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HE WHO DARES WINS
come on MD, you're better than that...don't compare these people to cannibals, they're not hurting anybody...this is as harmless as knocking on wood only on a more ceremonial stage...this is very different from the witch hunts that saw many burnt at the stake in 16th century england or the illusion that sex with a virgin will cure aids which still adheres in africa...this is a ceremony that people believe will bring them happiness...like prayer.
Brit makes a good point here, and before all the arguments about marrying a girl to a book... Catholic Nuns and Priests devote their lives to God and in this respect are never allowed to marry.
Again, different label, same action.
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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"
It's still a vile practice, although not as common as they would have you believe..
Sorry, but you are wrong in your assumption regarding the "Marriage to the Quran"..
The main reason for this is to ensure that the property, lands etc are not taken out of the family when the girl marries..
This is far better than marrying a junior girl to an old man and torture the girl's lifetime...
This is just a belief... Everyone has their own beliefs, and its up to them...
Atleast the frogs are let to live happily ever after.. and the girls are let free to live their life...
Give it a second thought...
There are lots of other better things to do in life..
Cheers buddy.
they should add scenes like this on their tourism ad., it'll bring more curiosity to tourists., :)
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call me ONE.
I remember watching a program on TV about some girls being married off to the Quran. This is a practice that is still common in the Province of Sindh. The reason for these marriages as shown in the program was that they could not find suitors for them..
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HE WHO DARES WINS
On a serious note this is ridiculus.
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HE WHO DARES WINS
OneMakikomoto you beat to it...lol
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HE WHO DARES WINS
Incredible India.
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call me ONE.
do you know ways to educate these cannibals?.... Will you go there and teach them? I think they are still waiting for their dinner! Lol!
"dgoodrebel will always be the rebellious good one"
Brit,...I sincerly hope it happens that way..But I feel really sad when I see that only the bad portion of India is being highlighted mostly...I saw a lot of this in the US..thatz the reason I cud not hold when I saw Andrews threads..
I did not mean to hurt anybody as I enjoy seeing all of u having fun in QL...We ( me and my friends) log into QL just to watch the fun u guys have...ofcourse we get to know a lotta news in QL than in Gulf news or gulf times...
don't respect and removed them from this planet? Where to go?
"dgoodrebel will always be the rebellious good one"
and yes, Brit, once education overcome their belief, they tend to change or improve. But still, they are entitled to their "practices" however "weird" or "idiotic" we see them.
"dgoodrebel will always be the rebellious good one"
dmigtysolomon, yes, let's respect the culture and beliefs of cannibals, too.
hmmm, i always question if it is the 'culture' or 'religion' under the name of which such crimes are committed. i personally think that there are political motives behind them. for instance, in some tribes in the sub-continent, girls are married off to holy books. this is justified under the name of so-called tradition or religion. the reality is if the girl is married off to someone outside the family (in most cases she has to), she will have a share in her parents' assets which her husband will claim at some point.
Andrews i agree with you, such matters should be brought to light and discussed.
Just vented out ...
Countries and peoples change when these silly practices are highlighted and they are educated as to their idiotic nature.
Yes, It is weird and funny ....I do agree with u on that.These kind of stupid things happen anywhere in the world.When I was in the US, one of my client said he wud not travel on a "FULL" moon day as he was scared that he might become mentally unstable..I was pretty shocked to hear this.Such things can happen anywhere.
But don't u think we have developed ourselves much above all this?Are we the same as the world sees us now?I saw an exhibition in IDS center,Mpls wherin they had depicted India as some underdeveloped country(atleast I felt so)...There are so many good things in India.But the things that were put up was the "poverty",some girl marrying a donkey and so on......Come on...
Come on..Letz not make things worse by mocking/teasing ourselves.We have grown up and let us make that part of it "more visbile".....
haha...liked this one better than junior rapes granny. I think it's very cool of you to post this one andrews, there really is nothing wrong with it, it's cultural, weird and funny!
QatarIT...Don't you think it's a weird and funny tradition???Iam an Indian and what is the harm in sharing this news with fellow Qlers...?
" Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated"
....G.B. Shaw
Andrews, Things like this can happen anywhere in the world.I see that u r from India..
Do u really need to put up this news in QL?Don't u think there are lot of good things to boast about in our country?
but it's sacred to them. It's cultural traditions and beliefs. Let's respect their tradition however weird it is!
"dgoodrebel will always be the rebellious good one"
first Dog then Goat now frog. whats next snake or earth worms
lol Solidsnake...
Frog marry Snake...lol
tatz equal to commiting suicide for the poor Frog...:)
I wonder if they would marry a SolidSnake too..
Frogs ?? :(
So wat did the frog ask for the Dowry ?
Green Leaves, Insects etc...??:)
This is common, there are villages that also marry girls off to dogs (I cant remember correctly but I think it was to ward off sickness).
Come on guys... it is a ritual dating back centuries. It is not like they have to consumate the marriage, nor are the girls kept from marrying later in life. It is symbolic.
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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"
not only that this world is full of sickos but weirdos as well.... :/
WTF ?????