Gangamma festival: Here devotees appease the gods with lemons stitched on them

"Say it with diamonds," insist the jewellery shops. "Say it with flowers," stress the florists. But the young Ravi prefers to say it with lemons - stitched on to him. He is trying to appease the gods at the Gangamma festival which is celebrated with great pomp and splendour by a Tamil speaking community in Bangalore. Devotees believe that the celebration leads to a good monsoon and prevents epidemics.

For Ravi it has been an annual ritual celebrated in mid-May. He has been under going the torturous ritual ever since he was one. The first year there were 10, the second year 20, and now he has 50 lemons stitched on to him. But to his parents and elders in the community, it is the fulfilment of a vow taken by his parents, when he was very ill.

It is not obligatory to repeat the performance every year, and yet most devotees persist with the ritual. It takes more than six hours to have about a hundred lemons stitched on to a person. The process of taking off the lemons is as bizarre as the process of wearing them. Devotees dance wildly on wooden stilts during the procession in the evening till all the lemons have been shaken off.

Origin:The Goddess Gangamma is regarded as a form ofaadi shakti(the original power) which has its origin in the river Ganges. The tradition came to Bangalore half a century ago, from Gudiyatam in Tamil Nadu. Now the Bangalore festival has pushed its way to the second place of importance after Gudiyatam.

Only males can participate in the festival. The spotlight at the festival falls on the person who carriesKaraga, a bedecked pot, on his head. He has to undergo rigorous trials for days. A sect for Tamil Nadu, called Pombais have the sanction to initiate the festival. They arrive with peculiar wind and percussion instruments and invoke the deity.