Ballari: It may sound strange that women were so overtaken by rumours that the red coral beads embedded in mangalsutra may speak and spell doom for their husbands, that they actually started crushing it.
It all started with rumours of a woman in Bandri village in Sandur taluk of Ballari district hearing the red coral bead in her mangalasutra speak and soon thereafter her husband passing away. As the rumours began to spread several married ladies in Ballari, Koppal, Davanagere and Chitradurga districts, fearing the same fate for their husbands chose to crush the red beads in the mangalsutra, which is donned by most married Hindu women for the long life of the husband.
However, as the women remained panic-stricken it was a field day for astrologers and priests with women approaching them to seek a way to avert the ‘mangalya dosha’ and offering special poojas at temples to ward of the “evil” stalking them.
