And I thought that cat juggling was barbaric.
Posted on 05/09/2012 8:35:52 PM PDT by Steelfish
Bizarre Baby Tossing Ritual In India In a bizarre ritual, Hindu priests in the south Indian state of Karnataka toss babies from the rooftop of a temple onto a cloth held by waiting men, believing that this will make them grow stronger.
09 May 2012
Thanks to their parents and a deep-rooted belief, babies in the Bagalkot district of south India's Karnataka state unwittingly found themselves being tossed off the roof of a temple onto a sheet held by men waiting below, in a ritual that is believed to make them stronger.
On Monday, large crowds of devotees gathered at the Marutheshwara temple near Mudhol town in Bagalkot district to observe the ritual, locally known as 'Okali'.
Eager parents presented their babies, who were between the ages of three months and two years, to priests at the temple who tossed them from the temple roof onto a cloth borne by a group of men standing below.
Though the ritual often evokes criticism, it is defended by devotees and priests, who feel that their belief necessitates a ritual that places babies at such huge risk.
A trustee of the Marutheshwara temple, Basavaraj, said that the ritual was an age-old one and it was important that it be respected.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
All beliefs are equally valid.
I don’t really understand this ritual or the Hindu religion, but the babies so tossed seem to come away unharmed. They at least stand a chance, unlike the 54 million babies anonymously annihilated in American abortuaries since 1973, a horrific abomination unspeakably vastly more “barbaric” than this foreign ritual.
Touche.
Meh... There’s worse and weirder things out there. If it really is a huge risk then, statistically, there should be some reports of injuries. I’m not aware of many or even any injuries from this. So... I’ll go with “no blood, no foul” for now.
It’s bizarre though. I’ll give you that.
Bizarre? It sounds like fun. I can think of at least 3 cultures that use large cloths to bounce people up at least 10 ft into the air. It's a group thing.
Beats jumping alone on a trampoline and breaking an arm and waiting for mom to get home to rescue you.
/johnny
“Meh... There’s worse and weirder things out there.”
Late term abortions and ‘transexual’ surgery on children come to mind. What kind of a benighted culture would do -that-?
Could you elaborate on abortion as a social practice in India compared to America?
Well, screwed up stuff but nothing compared to slicing and murdering them in their mother’s wombs by the thousands in America and many other countries! God will not be mocked. Be prepared.
My uncles used to toss us as higher than that. We loved it; they only dropped us a couple times which resulted in only minor injuries. Just more good clean third world fun... like dog spinning in Eastern Europe. What are guys suppose to do when they don’t have a TV and their wives are busy washing clothes in the river and then making meals?
And I thought that cat juggling was barbaric.
You are so right! Obama sponsored a law in Illinois legislature which allows the abortionist to kill the baby if it is born alive! If that is not murder, What is? Billion times worse than tossing a baby into a net unharmed.
More bizarre than Bulgarian dog spinning?
Petition to stop Bulgarian dog spinning
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2879441/posts
Cut em some slack. Their goal in life is to be reincarnated as a cow.
That’s got nothing on baby yoga...
Woman shocks viewers with swinging baby yoga video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnRmBD1I1kM
‘____which resulted in only minor injuries.’
PFFfftttt - -
Dunno - always thought baby tossing -
the American version - by men - was more about the guys subconsciously wondering if they could throw a little fright into the tot. Maybe to ‘toughen’ them???
Babies often have a nervous ‘smile’ when tossed - if at all.
Wonder if men think the tossing is to give the baby some ‘fun?’
Thinking about it, why the seeming need to do this?!
They can’t have a conversation, so they’ll just toss it around?! Hopefully they’re not over-shaken. (Some tossers get spat on)!
Never allowed it in this family. Our daughters are fine. Their babies are not tossed this way, either.
Some of us just don’t.
(Think I hear survivor stories coming - - -)
Hindu priests in the south Indian state of Karnataka toss babies from the rooftop of a temple onto a cloth held by waiting men, believing that this will make them grow stronger—ASSUMING THEY CATCH THEM FIRST...
Like suttee?
Maybe they need to post a disclaimer saying 'no babies were harmed in the making of this video'.
However I have no opinion to offer on the subject of dwarf-tossing.
It’s more likely more women were burned at the stake or executed for “witchcraft” in the West than women forced to die with their husbands for fear of them being used as sex slaves by invading Muslims (a practice which has legal sanction in the Quran of Islam).
Lamentably, induced abortion—intentionally killing unborn babies—occurs with alarming frequency in India, likely even more pervasively than in the United States of America. Indians disproportionately kill unborn girls, causing terrible imbalances in some regions.
However, the babies in this video do not appear harmed. I do not understand Hinduism enough to evaluate the extent to which individual religiosity correlates with likelihood to procure abortion; however, allegedly “Classical Hindu texts are strongly opposed to abortion.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.