Can a pot of "sacred" water from a "holy" well end the problems of childless couples? Yes, if one would go by the faith of hundreds of such women who rush to Orissa capital Bhubaneswar every year on the occasion of Ashokastami to buy a pot of water from Maricha Kunda, a holy well near the famous Lingaraj temple, and take bath in it with the hope that they will be blessed with a child soon.
The Ashokastami, a mega annual religious event, was celebrated in the Lingaraj temple recently and like the previous years, there was a congregation of childless women to buy pots of sacred water which was sold through an auction as per the tradition.
"The interest among the childless women from different districts of Orissa as well as from other states has been growing over the years", claimed Jiten Badu, the secretary of Badu Nijoga, an association of servitors of the Lingaraj temple which conducts the auction of the earthen water pots from Maricha Kunda.
An estimated 1,000 childless couples collected the water in the hope that would be parents in the next one year. The process of providing the sacred water starts on the eve of Ashokastami.
After a puja, the first pot of the sacred water goes to the Lingaraj temple to be used during the Ashokastami Rath Yatra - on the day of the mega religious event, the presiding deity of the 7th century Siva shrine embarks on a Rath Yatra with thousands of devotees pulling the chariot.
The second pot of the sacred water proceeds to the temple town of Puri for its use during the world famous Jagannath Rath Yatra. Soon after, the auction of the water for childless women begins. The first pot of the auctioned holy water goes to the highest bidder and this year the lucky one was a childless couple from north Orissa Mayurbhanj district who paid Rs 10,500 for a pot of water.
"One can get a pot of holy water for Rs 100 only", said Prasana Kumar Das, the assistant executive officer of Lingaraj Temple administration.
However, the demand for the first pot of the auctioned water had always remained high. In fact, a few years back, the first pot of holy water had fetched a whopping Rs 35,000.
Though it extends the logistic support like providing security to the devotees and making bathing arrangements for the ladies inside a nearby temple, the Lingaraj temple administration never takes the auction money. The money goes to the Badu Nijoga which conducts the auction. "We use the money for devotees' Prasada and other developmental works of the association", said the servitors' association secretary Jiten Badu.
According to Badu, the practice of providing the water of Maricha Kunda to childless women has been going on since ages. "We have been doing this for generations. Our forefathers too were doing the same", he said.
The legend, however, has it that goddess Bhubaneswari after whom the Orissa capital has been named had killed two demons. However, when she realised that the wives of both the demons were childless, she blessed both of them and asked them to pray to Lingaraj and take bath with the sacred water of Maricha Kunda on the eve of Ashokastami.
Subsequently, both the demon wives had been blessed with a child each. Since then issueless married women had been rushing to the holy pond on the occasion of Ashokastami every year.
The doctors, however, had never believed in the practice. "This is just a belief. Medically speaking pregnancy has nothing to do with any sacred water from any holy pond", said physician of Bhubaneswar Dr Jagannath Mohapatra, who was also a former head of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The servitors of the Lingaraj temple, on the other hand, insist that they had the evidence of barren ladies becoming mothers after having a bath in the waters of Maricha Kunda.
"We have received communications from several ladies acknowledging the fact that they had become mothers only because of the sacred water of the holy pond", insisted Badu.