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Indian women endure nail ritual
By Sampath Kumar
BBC correspondent in Madras
More than 100 women have endured being walked on by a priest wearing shoes with nails in their soles during a festival in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The incident took place on Sunday in a remote village near the southern textile city of Coimbatore.
It was part of a festival to the god Shiva, whose idol was being carried in a procession.
The women lay face down in front of the procession as the priest, in an apparent trance, walked over their backs.
The women were thought to have subjected themselves to the ritual as an act of devotion and penance.
Mahashivratri
One of the women said she believed both physical and mental illnesses would be cured when the priest's feet touched them.
The procession was part of Mahashivratri festival celebrations in honour of Shiva throughout India.
Several months ago, in another ritual in a village near the southern town of Madurai, children were buried alive before being retrieved a few seconds later.
A state minister in whose presence that ritual took place had to resign because of the outcry and the ritual is now banned following protests by human right groups.
But this has not prevented similar rituals from taking place elsewhere.
In another village in Coimbatore district, authorities have banned the practice of devotees entering burial grounds to symbolically consume human bones in a ritual also connected with the worship of Shiva.
Many villagers who had gathered in the burial ground to witness the ritual were disappointed.
One of the villagers blamed the ban on unnecessary publicity and the photographs of devotees with bones in their mouth that appeared in the media.
He said it was just a symbolic ritual and bones were not actually eaten.
Analysts say such rituals will continue despite official bans because of superstition among the poorer, uneducated people in the state.
By Sampath Kumar
BBC correspondent in Madras
More than 100 women have endured being walked on by a priest wearing shoes with nails in their soles during a festival in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The incident took place on Sunday in a remote village near the southern textile city of Coimbatore.
It was part of a festival to the god Shiva, whose idol was being carried in a procession.
The women lay face down in front of the procession as the priest, in an apparent trance, walked over their backs.
The women were thought to have subjected themselves to the ritual as an act of devotion and penance.
Mahashivratri
One of the women said she believed both physical and mental illnesses would be cured when the priest's feet touched them.
The procession was part of Mahashivratri festival celebrations in honour of Shiva throughout India.
Several months ago, in another ritual in a village near the southern town of Madurai, children were buried alive before being retrieved a few seconds later.
A state minister in whose presence that ritual took place had to resign because of the outcry and the ritual is now banned following protests by human right groups.
But this has not prevented similar rituals from taking place elsewhere.
In another village in Coimbatore district, authorities have banned the practice of devotees entering burial grounds to symbolically consume human bones in a ritual also connected with the worship of Shiva.
Many villagers who had gathered in the burial ground to witness the ritual were disappointed.
One of the villagers blamed the ban on unnecessary publicity and the photographs of devotees with bones in their mouth that appeared in the media.
He said it was just a symbolic ritual and bones were not actually eaten.
Analysts say such rituals will continue despite official bans because of superstition among the poorer, uneducated people in the state.