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Article: Ceremonies in India.
- Article from:
- Free Inquiry
- Article date:
- September 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A few months back, in the now fully literate Indian state of Kerala, more than 1,100 educated couples gathered to perform a ritual called the Putra Kamesti Yaga. This antediluvian Vedic fertility rite, which is an insult to modern science, supposedly guarantees a male child to the couple performing it. In a brazen display of sex-bias and in spite of opposition from rationalist and progressive groups, the ritual was conducted as planned, under open official patronage. Apart from the consideration that male children are immensely profitable in the marriage market, there appear to be more compelling spiritual reasons underlying the Indian fondness for male progeny: no Hindu ...