Farmers pray at Dhanush Temple to appease rain god

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT,Dhalkebar, July 28: Farmers of Dhanusha district offered milk at the historic Dhanush Temple on Sunday, seeking rainfall amid prolonged dry spells. The ritual, rooted in local belief, holds that offering milk at the temple can invoke rain.

According to temple priest Bharat Das Vaishnav, more than 400 farmers, including Dhanushadham Municipality Mayor Baleshwar Mandal, participated in a special ceremony and poured milk over a sacred fragment of the divine bow housed inside the temple. “This has been a tradition passed down for generations whenever rain is delayed,” he said.

The farmers said they resorted to the ritual as paddy transplantation has been severely affected due to a lack of rain, even as the third week of July has already passed. “We brought milk from our homes and offered it to the temple, praying for rainfall. In the past, when we did the same during a drought, it rained soon after,” said local Nagendra Mahara.

Although some farmers managed to transplant rice seedlings using water pumped from irrigation sets, the intense heat has started drying the crops. Many farmers, who had sown seeds in hopes of timely rain, are now worried as they have been unable to transplant seedlings.

Prolonged dry conditions have also led to a shortage of drinking water in Dhanusha and other parts of the Madhes region. According to the Madhes Province Agriculture Development Directorate, paddly plantation has been done only in 34 per cent of the total paddy fileds in Madhes.