The Hindu : Karnataka / Gulbarga News : These villagers go to sleep fearing the worst

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Gulbarga

These villagers go to sleep fearing the worst

By T.V. Sivanandan

GULBARGA, JUNE 8. Life has not been the same for the villagers of Auradi in Jewargi taluk in Gulbarga district in the last four months. They are living under the fear of "Banamati'', which is practised in some parts of Hyderabad-Karnatak region.

Strange things started happening in this tiny village with about 150 houses four months ago when stones started falling on rooftops and inside some of the houses from nowhere. Some of these stones have injured persons such as Sushilabai.

After dusk, no one ventures out of his house in the narrow lanes in the village as stones start falling. Villagers said it rained stones after 7 p.m. and it did not stop till 2 a.m. The villagers go to sleep only with the fear of having to face the worst consequences the next day.

"Banamati" is most feared as under its spell a person or a family targeted behave strangely and experience weird happenings in their lives.

Though isolated incidents of alleged "Banamati" spells on one or two families were reported a few years ago, the large number of families coming under its spell started occurring four months ago and it has continued unabated. Four years ago, Rehman Sab, a landless agriculture labourer, lost his 30-year-old wife after she reportedly came under the spell of "Banamati" and died of a mysterious disease.

Doctors attending on her could not identify the cause of the disease or the nature of the disease before she died in a private hospital in Gulbarga city.

Rehman Sab, who still lives in the village with his children, said strange things continued to happen in his life even today and recently a buffalo, which was his only source of income, died of a strange disease.

Saraswatibai, one of the inhabitants of the village, told The Hindu that it had become difficult for her and her children to venture out in the evening or sleep outside their house in the open, which they did to beat the heat, because of the mysterious falling of stones on their house.

However, Neelamma and her family members appear to be the most affected in the village.

Neelamma said stones started raining on the tin shed in front of her house in the evening and it continued till midnight.

The tell tale signs on the tin sheets with dents all over speak for the trauma being faced by the family.

Another housewife, Shakuntala, said the phenomena of stones falling inside her house from nowhere had come as a shock. High-rise buildings surround her house, which has pucca roofing, and she said no one could throw stones inside her house, yet stones continued to fall inside the house.

Babu, a 10-year-old boy, suffered a stone hit when he was sleeping in the open space in front of Shakuntala's house on Monday.

Asked whether there were anyone practising "Banamatti" in the village, the villagers said they were not aware of such a person.

So far none had visited the village to study the phenomena, the villagers said.

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These villagers go to sleep fearing the worst