BHUBANESWAR: A five-year-old girl was married to a dog at a village near here on Wednesday evening. The bride groom went through the motions with a perplexed look, while there was much rejoicing on bride Kuni Munda’s side.
The baraatis said the ritual would save the girl from man-eating tigers. The Mundas, a tribal community, believe that marrying off a young girl just when her permanent teeth appear makes her immune to attacks by animals.
In Kuni’s house at Munda Sahi, an area bordering Bhubaneswar, the preparations hed begun almost a week in advance.
Rituals were performed and people feasted to their heart’s content.
In keeping with their beliefs, the bride’s mother Laxmi Munda got some vermilion into which Raghunath Munda’s dog dug its paw and daubed the red powder on the little girl’s forehead. That done, the family made arrangements for the ‘dowry’ to be given away: plastic toys and utensils were distributed among the guests after a priest had finished with the mantras and persuaded Kuni to do perambulations of the holy fire. Moments after that the marriage came to a culmination with the hathagantthi, tying of the knot.
Though the dog sat through all this with remarkable patience, nobody was remotely interested in his performance.
For the Mundas, this unique union between human and canine is a routine practice. Elders said they have been celebrating such “marriages” for centuries.
Um, silly question, but does this mean she is legally married to this dog until one of them dies? can she divorce it? can she be married twice? Ummmm, so many questions go with this one.
ya one of my sikh friend told me that her cousin had to be married to a tree before her real husband to cast off the evil ...prediction that her husband will die ...
This way the tree gets the bad luck not her husband
..so where is the newly married couple going for honey moon.
Ravage you edited my comments …I think you dont even deserve to be married to a bitch…I am telling literally and not figuratively…edit this ASAP to save your reputation!!
PCG we are talking about tribals here. those people live in jungle and barely have intraction with rest of the world.
Its theri ritual, its not like dog is gonna take care of her for rest of her life. the marrige is for name sake only (no honymoon:nono: ) which is supposed to save her(as they believe).
when she grows up then she can marry anyone she wants.
Use your brains. india has lots of tribes and they have lot of crazy rituals.
this has been explained before....it is nothing more than a symbolic "marriage", where the girl will still be properly married to a guy when she is of age. apart from its totally bizarre nature, i don't see anything terribly wrong or harmful in it.
bizarre tribal rituals that are harmless > brutal tribal practices that kill people
Aside from which, the dog will die of old age by the time she's old enough to actually properly be married.
Anyway, let's continue pointing and laughing at the primitive jungle people.
Though I bet that they are deep inside shocked and horrified about the fact that people outside their community don't marry their daughters to animals....
