Not fruits or flowers, but scorpions offered at Kondala Rayudu temple in Kodumuru

KURNOOL: It is commonly seen that people offer sweets, fruits, flowers or even money as offerings to Gods and deities in temples. However, in a temple located in Kodumuru village of Kurnool district, devotees offer live scorpions to Lord Kondala Rayudu.

India is a country full of diverse cultures, traditions and rituals and people are often seen carrying out eccentric practices in the name of devotion.

People from different regions visit this hill-top temple, and hunt for live scorpions under rocks around the temple. Unbothered that they are poisonous and life-threatening, people of all ages hold these scorpions with their hands and offer it in the temple.

After placing the scorpions in the sanctum sanctorum of the Lord, they perform special poojas. People of Kodumuru village perform this ritual every year on the third Monday of 'Sravana masam', the current month according to Telugu lunar calendar.

They claim that even if the scorpions bite, it isn't painful or harmful. They say that by taking 'pradakshanam' (praying by walking around the temple) the bite will heal and there would be no suffering. Whether it is a superstition or the scorpions are not venomous is, however, not known.

In fact, a scorpion bite causes severe pain and also at times is harmful even to life. The scorpions are poisonous.

With this pooja becoming popular, not just the residents of the district, but even people from other districts are also coming here to experience this strange ritual.