New Delhi: Villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district have set up a temple of “goddess corona” and are offering her prayers in the hope that divine intervention can banish the deadly virus. The idol also wears a mask.
Devotees in Shuklapur village have been offering prayers, holy water and flowers at the bright yellow shrine where they have placed their idol of “Corona Mata”, since they erected it this week.
“Maybe with her blessings the villagers, our village, and everyone else get some relief,” one villager, who gave her name as Sangeeta, said on Friday.
Multiple videos and photos that are doing the rounds on social media show the temple with an idol of ‘Corona Mata’ wearing a green face mask.
‘Corona Mata’ temple comes up under a neem tree at a village in Pratapgarh district
"Villagers collectively decided & set up the temple with belief that praying to the deity would definitely offer respite to people from Coronavirus," a villager said yesterday. pic.twitter.com/jA3SGU0RQE
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 12, 2021
The villagers collected donations to set up the temple, news reports said. “Villagers collectively set up the temple with the belief that praying to the deity would definitely offer respite to people suffering from COVID-19,” a villager told news agency ANI.
Also read: COVID-19 and Uttar Pradesh, Six Weeks of Living Hell
The Shuklapur villagers’ prayers have not been fully answered yet as there are sill some cases in the district, but the numbers are also sharply lower than they were at the height of the pandemic.
Last month, a similar episode was reported from Coimbatore, where the authorities of Kamatchipuri Adhinam consecrated ‘Corona Devi’, a black stone idol of 1.5 feet tall, to protect people from the virus.
India reported 84,332 new cases on Saturday, the lowest daily tally in more than two months, health ministry data showed. COVID-19 has killed 367,081 people in India, according to government data.
(With inputs from Reuters)