Indian Woman Marries Snake

Posted on by

Look, I love animals. I mean, I really love animals. I grew up with a dog, I have cats, and I walk some of the dogs in my neighborhood to break up my writing day. But I draw a line at this: Indian woman marries cobra.

Now, all phallic jokes aside, let’s take a look at this. This woman was sick. She started feeding the snake and got cured. Perhaps this was psychological, or coincidental, or perhaps it was indeed a religious sign. But basic questions are being ignored here.

For one, how did the snake propose? I’m assuming this Bimbala Das is a nice Indian girl who didn’t spring the question on it/him? Also:

Priests chanted mantras to seal the union, but the snake failed to come out of a nearby ant hill where it lives,

Then how do you know it said yes? What if it has a little cobra wife and babies already? You mean the incredible racket of an Indian wedding isn’t conducive to luring snakes into matrimony?

Second, what are the snake’s rights? Does he know own her property? Did he provide some kind of dowry? And, perhaps most important from the cobra’s point of view–does the snake have any conjugal rights? I mean, I’m just asking here, it’s a logical question.

“I am happy,” said her mother Dyuti Bhoi, who has two other daughters and two sons to marry off.

Eeeeeeeenteresting. Perhaps a trip to the zoo is in order? I’ve heard penguins mate for life….

a traditional Hindu wedding celebrated by 2,000 guests in India’s Orissa state

This is the most shocking of all. A cobra can get 2000 guests to come to its wedding in the heat of India in June and I can’t get half my guests to come up past 14th street on a weekday.

126 thoughts on “Indian Woman Marries Snake”

  1. I have read this line about eight times today already and it still makes me crack up. Gulbadan the goat and Kaveri the Cow? What comes next?

    A threesome with Farookh the Frog and Shahenshah the Sheep.

    Although I think getting it on with Aurangzeb the Alligator would be going a little too far. Now that really is an example of a dangerous romance.

    does the cobra have a name?

    Ahh, you should know better than to ask that. A good Indian girl never refers to her husband by his name.

    And what does the bride call herself?

    Lucky to still be alive after the wedding night.

  2. siddharta m:

    ‘i thought neeraja’s post was hilarious, personally, as were the first dozen or two responses before people started getting sanctimonious.’

    It’s a funny story. But even humor isn’t pure or immune to criticism. Personally, I find stories like this in the media and our reaction and perception of them interesting. It poses a certain kind of conflict for me. On the one hand, it’s humorous, but on the other hand, I am sick to death of bizarre stories from the East which are taken totally out of context and seem to serve no purpose whatsoever except to point out the freakishness of non-western culture. It’s humor with a bad aftertaste, for me anyway.

    Here’s another one a friend forwarded me today: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=388901&in_page_id=1770

    Anyway, I sort of agree with Divya. I don’t think our notions of ‘love’ and ‘marriage’ are as portable as we would like. Although, if marriage is considered to be a social contract, it probably would have legal ramifications. But I don’t think we should think of it through our own ideas of love and marriage. Anyway, all that has probably become obvious by now.

    Cheerios, a.

  3. I might be repeating what many people have said on this story, but hey ‘polly see, polly do’..

    It is always easy to laugh at things taken out of their context, and to be honest I did find myself shaking my head and about to forward the link on to others with some suitably witty by-line. But as I read through to the end of this comment thread, I couldn’t help but feel a little silly. Surely this is nothing more than a reaction to that particular woman’s situation. She is 30, and has a number of younger siblings who need to be married off and settled and so on. I have heard of people who have been forced to marry, just so they ‘smooth’ the path for their siblings. Yeah, that old chestnut..

    I say, fair play, marry a cobra instead of marrying some guy who could end up being a real a*sehole.

  4. I am sick to death of bizarre stories from the East which are taken totally out of context and seem to serve no purpose whatsoever except to point out the freakishness of non-western culture.

    Funny dilemma at work here. If this were not a desi-specific kind of forum, then perhaps we’d be pointing out everyone’s freakishness and it wouldn’t seem like non-western culture is being singled out. (Kind of like “Oddball” on “Countdown w/Keith Olbermann.”) But since it’s a desi-specific kind of forum, the opportunity to be or at least seem equal opportunity about freakishness isn’t always there in quite the same way. I think that probably very few folks here would deny that there is plenty of western freakishness we could be talking and joking about as well….

  6. I think that probably very few folks here would deny that there is plenty of western freakishness we could be talking and joking about as well….

    yeah, like that pic of the white guy having sex with a chicken i saw the other day in an email forward as a response to this article

  7. Neerja, this post once again shows your shallowness of looking towards your own heritage. I dont think you know or understand india…..u just pick up something bizzare and post it here. Are you just trying to make fun or thats your true attitude of looking towards india

  8. puccahindustani

    Neerja, this post once again shows your shallowness of looking towards your own heritage. I dont think you know or understand india…..u just pick up something bizzare and post it here. Are you just trying to make fun or thats your true attitude of looking towards india

    Chill! It’s her first funny post about India. Nice overgeneralization, by the way. Next time you laugh, pinch yourself for degrading our glorious heritage.

  9. I liked the post as pointing to a culture that is more inclusive in its attitudes towards non-human creatures. Hence, a woman can marry a snake (and I totally agree with the analysis above as to the socio-economic reasons this might have happened) — and, even though many of them might have thought it a bit strange/amusing themselves (not to miss the opportunity for free eaties), several people showed up and saw this as a possible ‘marriage’ to another living creature, Shiva or not.

    Note: the snake is not being ‘used’ or abused physically, at least as far as this article reports, but is being accorded a certain ‘respect’ by the use of the word marriage.

    One of the things I like about Indian culture is its often relatively not according human beings too much of a position of privilege :). Hence the ability to accept and even see as divine non-human animals.

    Like the rest of you, I was conflicted in my response a little…and so, while I enjoyed the piece, this is the sort of news item I do NOT fw to my Amreekan friends, esp. those who are too apt to jump onto the easy criticism/exoticization of other cultures bandwagon.

  10. Have there been other cases of women in India marrying snakes (symbolically)– in mythology etc, does anyone know?

  12. Thanks, DesiDude in G.

    And, while we’re on the subject, I wonder if there are stories about ‘marriages’ to snakes in other cultures too. I seem to remember a native american story…but that was about a guy who turns into a snake, or was it a snake who turns into a guy at night…?

  13. The high privileging of human beings and notion that all other non-human creatures can be used and exploited by us largely derives from (dare I say it…hey Saffron Spoor — my preferred choice of ‘new’ name for you :)– am I allowed to use your favourite word??) Abrahamic tradition.

  14. There is enough literature and mention of human-animal relations / hybridization etc., and especially in classical ‘western’ literature:

    • The minotaur: A sacred bull having sex with a greek Goddess, results in a cross bred extremely confused dude / bull that has a liking for labyrinths and devouring virgins.

    • Satyrs: Human-goat hybrids, again with a strange liking for nymphs, beautiful women who tend to fall asleep by ponds.

    • The little mermaid: There was THAT story about a woman marrying a dolphin

    • The frog / prince duality.

    • The Jungle book!

    See, you read all these fairy tales and stories. Nobody told me ‘Maaan, thats strange’, but then a woman who decided to marry a snake (note, no mention of human snake hybrids here) is big news? Suuuurely that is unfair.

  15. Meera bai took krishna as her husband. In south India there is a place called Savadatti where young women and Hijras marry a goddess(shakti). It is not about marrying an animal or stone, it is about giving up physical gratification.

  16. pedantry and sanctimonious behaviour will only encourage us.

    damn straight!

  17. I don’t know why these debauched Westerners with their Abrahmically-inspired hypocrisy and NRIs (Non-Required Indians) suffering from desi Stockholm Syndrome are pointing their monotheistic fingers accusingly at our pious Indian sisters, while making snarky comments about conjugal activities with scaly husbands who can apparently do all kinds of naughty tantric activities with their forked tongues. Western society itself has not been immune to such human-reptile interspecies canoodling.

    I remember a certain Nastassja Kinski posing with a certain slithery friend in a certain famous photograph during the halcyon days of the 1980s, when every desi man had an Amitabh haircut, Doordarshan was the only television channel you had access to (if you were lucky), and Mallika Sherawat wasn’t even an hourglass-shaped blip on the horizon yet.

    (In)famous snake pic (vaguely NSFW).

    Hail eBay !

  18. Just in case you missed this most apposite 55:

    “Did you read that story about that woman who married that snake, back in India?” he called out to her, as he sat on the sofa browsing the internet.
    “Is that right?” she replied, arms immersed in dishwashing.
    “Yeah, but the snake didn’t show up to the wedding!”
    “Read about it? Please, I’m living it.”

    Isn’t The King Singh great at flashing fiction? 😀

  21. Keep an eye out for a lot more stories like these, since Rome has now expressed its desire to convert the poor souls in India! Tragic, since “The Eternal Way” is indeed a beautiful religion. Sanatana Darhma, a global religion in renaissance, is crying out for some structure from the Hindu councils across the world. I do have pity for these people, and am extremely angry at those responsible for their education. In my view, these priests have not followed the Vedic edict of righteousness!

  22. No matter how much India progresses financially, this Idol-worshipping primitive religion will keep them stupid.

  23. They should all convert and worship a lump of black coal in the Arabian desert instead! That will make them less primitive!

  24. hi im a school student that lives in australia

    In shcool we are studying india i WAS DOING A REPORT WHEN I STUBLED ACROSS THIS ON GOOGLE

    HONESTLY MARRING A COBRA WHAT KIND OF NUTCASE MARRIES A SNAKE?

    I HAVE HEARD OF A NOTHER STORIE LIKE THIS WERE A WOMAN MARRIED A DOLPHIN

    IS THIS SOME KIND OF SIKO PERSONS JOKE OR ARE THESE POPLE FOR REAL

    ANY WAY INDIA IS A GREAT TOPIC TO STUDIE

    PS. SEND ME A PICTURE OF THIS SNAKE

  25. I think it’s cute that the woman married a snake. Think how long their kids’ penises will be if have any male children!

  26. by this Incidence, it shows one monkey dance and others watching it nor all indian marriage so superstious