A devotee at a temple in Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district chopped off his tongue and offered it to the presiding deity, police said on Saturday. The incident caused a stir on the Maa Sheetla temple premises where the incident took place.
The devotee – identified as 38-year-old Sampat from Kaushambi – was rushed to the district hospital where he is undergoing treatment. His condition is said to be serious.
Police said Sampat and his wife Banno Devi came to the temple where they performed their ritual after taking a dip in the Ganga. They performed their 'parikrama' or circumambulation at the temple – where the devotees walk barefoot to take a full circle of the temple premises. Moments later, Sampat cut his tongue with a blade and presented it at the temple's 'chaukhat' (door frame), said Abhilash Tiwari, station house officer of Karha Dhaam police station.
His wife Devi told police that he had expressed a desire to visit the temple on Friday night. However, she said she was not aware of the incident prior to the visit.
While the reason is not clear in case of the latest act of maiming, this is not the first such incident of devotees chopping off their tongues as an offering to the deity, or even for a politician.
{{/usCountry}}While the reason is not clear in case of the latest act of maiming, this is not the first such incident of devotees chopping off their tongues as an offering to the deity, or even for a politician.
{{/usCountry}}In Tamil Nadu, last year, a woman had chopped off the tip of her tongue to fulfill her vow to sacrifice ‘if MK Stalin became the chief minister’. She was found in an unconscious state on the steps of a temple, with blood coming out of her mouth.
In Odisha, in 2020, a priest had chopped off the head of a local man inside a temple to perform rituals after receiving “orders from god” in his dream where he saw a human sacrifice to dispel the coronavirus outbreak.
(With agency inputs)