Mangalore, January 1: More than 2,500 sumangalis (married Hindu women) took a solemn pledge at Sri Kshetra Gokarnanatha on New Year's Day that they would not shed any of the symbols of their marriage in the event of death of their life-partners.
The event was the continued part of the reformative programmes initiated by the patron of the Temple B Janardhan Poojary.
Women will also declare openly that they will take the lead role in all religious and other auspicious rituals to break the barriers attached to widowhood.
Mr Poojary himself led the oath taking and other ceremonies in which his own family members and relatives too had participated in large numbers.
Poojary's daughter and daughter-in-law were also among those sumangalis who pledged before the deity that they would not remove their mangalasutra and they would continue to wear bangles, vermillion and ornaments even after the death of their husbands.
The women also declared openly that they would take the lead role in all religious and other auspicious rituals to break the barriers attached to widowhood.
It can be recalled that Poojary's wife Malathi and four other married women had taken an oath at the temple during Diwali celebrations this year on similar lines.
A special chandika yaga was performed prior to the oath taking, where all rituals were performed by women themselves. They offered arathi to the deity and pulled the silver chariot too.
At the end of the rituals all participant women were given saree, blouse piece, bangles, kumkum and flowers as prasada.
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