Entertainment News Thousands of guests and paparazzi were on hand to witness the marriage of Ram and Sita in the village of Madhya Baragari ...
Entertainment News
Thousands of guests and paparazzi were on hand to witness the marriage of Ram and Sita in the village of Madhya Baragari in India.
Why was the couple so popular? They are both frogs.
This year, India has suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states. Farmers in the village fell back on the trusted local method of marying off frogs to bring the badly needed monsoon rains.
The two frogs are named after India's most revered mythological couple from an ancient Sanskrit epic called Ramayana. The story depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. According to Hindu Net, it is "a source of spiritual, cultural, and artistic inspiration," and it "helped mould the Hindu character, inspring millions of people with the deepest of love and devotion."
Following ancient Hindu belief, the frogs' heads were smeared with vermilion paint and the pair were held up in the air in a ritual in front of a traditional clay candle.
The villagers pooled their money together this week to perform the marriage. The women at the wedding fasted beforehand and then invited the river to join the ceremony and give its blessing, as is customary in Bengali tradition.
