Ballari: The state government may be all set to ban superstitious practices in the state, but it clearly has a hard road ahead of it as on Wednesday hundreds of married women in Ballari, Koppal, Davanagere and Chitradurga districts grew afraid of a "speaking" red coral bead in their mangalsutras and rushed to crush it, believing it could take the lives of their husbands otherwise.
It all started with rumours of a woman in Bandri village in Sandur taluk of Ballari district hearing the red coral bead in her mangalasutra speak and losing her husband soon afterwards.
As panic spread, married women came out of their homes and gathering in groups crushed the red corals in their mangalasutras.
Many of the women also approached astrologers and religious heads to seek a remedy for the 'mangalya dosha' and performed special poojas at temples to ward of the "evil" stalking them.
While villagers of Bandri village denied they had anything to do with the rumour, the women continued to swear by it, saying this was no superstition as women in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh had suffered because they refused to crush the red coral beads in their mangalsutras as per the belief.
