Faces of India – 354 Pujari from Avani Betta

Faces of India

a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country whom I met during my travels. I bring back souvenirs, frozen moments from my travels, why not some memories of people I have met and interacted during the travels. Faces of India is a weekly series in my blog since MARCH 2011. See more here…

Pujari from Avani Betta

In this post I have the portrait of purohit (pujari, priest) giving his services at Sita Mata temple in Avani Betta. After offering our prayers I hesitantly started talking to him asking him when the temple was built.

Not sure what his response would be; if he was elaborate in his answer I would take it as a signal to continue discussion with him, a one liner from him would indicate me to get going. Thankfully he was elaborate and so I asked him how long he was working here as pujari.

Pujari: This is my second stint as pujari here. My father was pujari here 40 years back and I used to help him out to do the rituals. I did not like this job; instead I wanted to be a driver.

I found great satisfaction in driving buses and travelled till Kashmir with bus full of pilgrims. I have visited many temples in north of India.

At first I was state government employee then I stated driving private coaches which were more comfortable. After my retirement I became pujari here again.

I guess I was destined to do services to Goddess Sita throughout my life. I have only one son. He too takes up the role of being pujari in this temple on some days. He does other works too as this alone can’t afford for the full family.

He then explained the significance of Sita Mata (Mother Sita) Temple.

Childless couples come visiting this temple to pray for offspring. The woman has to be accompanied by her husband and also another woman who may or may not be related to her. She has to take dip in the small lake, come and offer prayers in the same wet clothes and sleep for a night in the area in front of the temple. Her two friends should also stay with her for the night. In the night she will get some dream which will be an indication that her prayers will be answered. They should make one more trip as thanksgiving to complete the whole ritual.

Those who don’t believe in such spiritual practices may kindly ignore this. I happened to hear this during my conversations with the pujari hence wrote it down.