According to the police, Satana Devi, a widow, was found lying in a pool of blood by a devotee and was rushed to hospital, where her condition was said to be stable.
Satana Devi,the police said, had been under depression for the past few months, as her efforts to fix the marriage of her son, a weaver, was not successful.
“The woman wanted to see her son married and had approached her relatives and friends for lending a helping hand to fulfil her wish,” police sources said.
Satana had vowed before the deity at the “Mari Mata Temple” in the old city some months back that she would offer something precious if her son’s marriage materialised.
“The woman was not getting any offer as her son was a weaver and earns barely enough to sustain himself and his mother,” the police said.
Some people in her locality had allegedly advised the lady to offer her tongue at the deity, they added. On Friday afternoon, she reached the temple and chopped off her tongue with a blade.
Incidents of offering of body parts to deities at temples in the state had been reported in the past also.
Only a few months back, a youth had chopped off his tongue at the famous Naimisharanya Temple in the neighbouring Sitapur district.
Also, there is a Shiva temple in Hardoi district, about 125 kilometre from here, where several devotees have reportedly offered their tongues in the past.