MP ritual: Villagers let cows trample over them

Bhopal: In a bizarre ritual, villagers decorate their cattle with flowers, colours and henna, and lay down on the ground letting allowing cows to trample over them. During this ritual, which was organised in a Madhya Pradesh village on Friday, cattle herdsmen laid on the ground and then paraded cows over them to invoke the blessings of deity, “Gowardhan”.

The annual ritual is performed in Bhidawad village of Ujjain district a day after Diwali to bring peace and prosperity to devotees of the deity.

The livestock are painted in different vibrant colours and garlanded before being paraded over the people lying on the ground.

“The ritual is a part of Diwali festival. Besides invoking blessings from the deity, the devotees also seek forgiveness from the cattle herd for using them whole year by allowing cattle to trample over them,” Nimari Buchhu, a local villager, told this newspaper on Friday.

Hundreds of cattle ran over the human carpet road amid beating of drums and singing and dancing by women.

Interestingly, the dangerous ritual, called in local parlance “Gaay Gauri” festival, usually leaves no one injured.

“The devotees who lie on the ground usually follow certain techniques, such as covering their heads with their arms and stiffening their body, when the cattle run over them.

If anyone suffers minor injuries, they are treated with cow urine and dung, considered anti-septic agents by the villagers, he added.

The cattle herdsmen demonstrate their special bond with the bovines by observing the ritual.

The video of the bizarre ritual has gone viral in the social media this year.

In the “Gowardhan” temple in Jhabua district in MP, the tribal herdsmen also observe the ritual of getting their cattle to trample over them as penance for making them work in their agriculture fields whole year.