Chennai, June 12 (IANS) — The offering was made Friday in the temple of Kaliamman, a fiery Hindu goddess, in Karur district apparently for a good summer crop, without allowing the media to witness it.
The ceremony is performed in the temple in Kulakkaranpatti village once in seven years. The last one was in 1997 when 1,000 buffaloes were killed.
The state government had clamped down on such rituals in August 2003 strictly implementing a 1950 law against ritualistic killing of animals.
Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha even went to the extent of compelling a minister and several officials to resign for being present in temples at the time of such killings.
However, she withdrew the last year’s order before the general election reportedly fearing that the gods would be upset if rituals were interfered with.
But Jayalalitha’s party, AIADMK, contesting the elections in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, could not win any of the 39 Lok Sabha (National Parliament) seats in the state.
© Copyright 2004 IANS India Private Limited, New Delhi. Posted on Religioscope with permission.