Two days after Karnataka’s Minister of State for Rural Water Supply K.B. Koliwad requested all elected representatives to observe prayers in their respective constituencies, the state government has officially announced special prayers in all temples for rain. In a Government Order, Minister of State Suma Vasant on Monday said that as Karnataka has been reeling under acute drought for the third consecutive year, all places of worship coming under the Muzrai Department (the department that makes endowments to religious places) would observe special prayers for rains on June 5.Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) officials also conducted special pujas on Monday. The Prasanneshwara Temple in Shantinagar was filled with workers in uniform, administrative staff, drivers, bus conductors and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation officials who came for a special morning puja. The priests performed the rudrabhisheka and Varuna puja to invoke the rain gods. Meanwhile, in Mandya and Chamarajnagar, villagers are resorting to unique ways to appease the rain gods.Villagers of Dagalapura exhumed a woman’s corpse and conducted funeral rites to ward off the ‘‘evil spell’’. They believed that the aged woman could possibly bring yet another dry spell as she had leukoderma. For villagers in Mandya, it is mass prayer time. Most have sacrificed goats and sheep to please local deities like Maramma. Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president K.S. Puttanniah has lamented the mass sacrifice of animals by villagers.But everyone doesn’t pray the same way. People of Dasanaguppe took out a colourful procession carrying the idol of a frog. The frog invites rain, goes the belief here. They splashed colour on each other, burnt wooden idols of frog and danced for hours for rains. They also spread out a feast for guests and visitors to the village.
