Villagers dig graves, pump water into 'thirsty' corpses' mouths to bring rain

KARNATAKA: People of Kalakeri village in Indian state of Karnataka dug graves and poured water in the mouths of corpses to bring rain and appease the “rain gods”, Indian media reported.

In many parts of the world, people practise praying to the ‘rain gods’ just so that their area could get rain during droughts. However, a bizarre ritual in Karnataka involving digging graves to make ‘thirsty’ corpses drink water is beyond superstitions.

Almost all of Karnataka was receiving abundant rains. Some areas were even affected by landslides and floods due to excessive rain. For some reason, Kalakeri village didn’t get a drop of rain, leaving the farmers of the area extremely worried.

Seeing as the evidence pointed to a ‘curse’, villagers gathered and made a list of all the people who had died over the past month, according to Indian media.

The villagers gathered and listed out all the people who died in the last month and went to their graveyard. Excavators dug up a hole two feet away and ran a water pipe all the way to the mouth of the corpse.

Then, water from a tanker was released to quench the thirst of these resting people. The process was repeated for 25 graves. However, when the last corpse was done, it started to drizzle. This made people’s trust in this ritual a little higher.

The ‘curse’

Home to under 3,000 residents, Kalakeri is a small village predominantly dependent on agriculture and any deficit in rain drinks its revenues dry. But, locals attribute this sort of eventuality to a supposed curse that goes back many years.

An old man in Kalakeri died with his mouth “wide open” and was buried without anyone closing the oral gape. This is said to have brought severe drought and famine later that year.

Interestingly, the villagers called in an astrologer to understand the reason behind the suffering only to be told that the “thirsty” corpse brought the curse upon the village.

Following their advice, the residents dug a hole and pumped water into his grave to redeem themselves of the alleged curse. Coincidentally, the skies began to rain and a ritual was born.