Assam organises frog marriage to invoke Rain God
With the state of Assam reeling under acute shortage of water due to poor rain, people are turning to their time-tested traditional ritual of frog marriage to appease the Rain God.
This age-old ritual of organising wedding of frogs by community was restricted to rural areas so far but this time even urban people in Guwahati have resorted to this ritual of frog marriage. They believe that frog marriage will bring rain and their parched wells will fill up with rainwater.
In what also reflected the hardships of people facing drought-like situation, Champa Boro and her neighbours spent three days to get hold of frogs in the concrete jungle of capital city to organise their wedding.
Hundreds of residents of Katabari, in the western corner of this capital city, organised frog marriage last Friday.
Champa, who is also the president of Janajati Mahila Samiti at Katabari, says “We are finding it difficult to buy water as most of the water sources have dried up. In absence of any regular supply of water from the municipal corporation, our only hope is rain, which can bring water to our wells. We arranged frog marriage hoping that it will pleas the Rain God.”
The community organising the frog marriage follows the rituals of normal Assamese Hindu marriage. One frog is made the bride and another the groom. People divide themselves in two groups, blow trumpets and sing songs, as the priest solemnises the marriage with the usual Hindu marriage rituals. Amidst chanting of Hindu hymns, women put colourful streaks on the female frog’s head during the ceremony in which a feast is also hosted.
About 100 km from here, at Bortongla in Udalguri district, villagers on Sunday held a frog marriage with the hope of getting rain to water their dry agricultural fields. “Every one is very worried. We will be doomed if the dry days prolong. We are very much worried about the delay in rainfall,” a villager said.
Frog weddings to appease rain god are practiced in some parts of Southeast Asia also adjoining the Northeast India.
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