Indian Woman Marries Snake

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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. A (male) friend in India was instructed by a pandit to marry “a goat or a tree” to get rid of the bad luck fated for his marriage…before he could go on to marry his girlfriend. I can’t believe he actually went through with it (he chose the tree 😀 )

    So why not a snake. At least its a convenient shape…

  2. 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 isnÂ’t conducive to luring snakes into matrimony?

    Neeraja, Neeraja. Surely they had the snake’s biodata and made sure that he came from a good family….

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

    Ain’t that the truth. Less than half when its pouring rain.

  3. Man, the girl’s a serious desi goth…

    (sorry, couldn’t resist… 🙂

  4. It’s a good thing the snake was of the right caste, presumably there might be caste issues that come into play. I mean how lucky to fall in love with a snake of the same caste and everything wow some people are so lucky.

  5. Dont miss the last line……

    “Earlier this year, a tribal girl was married off to a dog on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.”

  6. This reminds me of the bollymovie ‘Doodh ka karz’, wherein the busty Aruna Irani breastfeeds a ‘hungry’ snake with mere doodh ka karz nibhana playing in the background. And my teacher told me snakes dont drink milk. sigh.

  7. huh!!! Do we need another public “pass the camera. chaz at the club will love it” type facials? even the brits [1] , [2] (via UB) try to avoid the cheap thrills.

  8. I canÂ’t get half my guests to come up past 14th street on a weekday.

    Well, it’s far, dude. Come to Brooklyn!

  9. Notice how the article states that the girl ‘fell in love’ with the snake. Did she consider consumating this match? Eww.

  11. I JUST HOPE THEY ARE HAPPY—NOT ENOUGH OF THAT IN THIS VERY TROUBLED WORLD !!!

  13. All the whiners and moaners on the other thread about arranged marriages should stop whining and read this story. You get introduced to some woman or man by your Uncle Baljinder and you complain? Count yourself lucky your parents didnt push you in a room with a rattlesnake or boa constrictor and expect you to make shy conversation over cups of tea and samosas.

  14. I love the snake story and find it all terribly romantic. How many women can actually boast of marrying some one who has cured them of disease.As for his possibly already having a family- well, this could be an open marriage. Conjugal visits? Let’s hope so!

  15. Wait a second- So the snake, didn’t even come to the wedding, and had a stand in replica? So if I get this right…

    Supposing I wanted to get married to say…John Abraham. And I got the village elders (i.e. SM bloggers) to approve, and say, hypothetically speaking, I had a cardboard cutout of Mr. Abraham and used the cutout as a stand in at the wedding.. Is it possible, just oh so possible, that my dream of marrying John Abraham could come true?

    I’m just sayin’….

  17. Good advertisement of Women empowerment in India. I am gonna forward this to everyone who talks about Indian women being forced into marriage.

  18. Supposing I wanted to get married to say…John Abraham. And I got the village elders (i.e. SM bloggers) to approve, and say, hypothetically speaking, I had a cardboard cutout of Mr. Abraham and used the cutout as a stand in at the wedding.. Is it possible, just oh so possible, that my dream of marrying John Abraham could come true?

    Taz, I don’t know how far this is true but my mom used to tell me that back when Rajesh Khana was crooning ‘Mere sapno ki rani kabh aayegi tu’, enough women went gaga and got married to his photograph. Going by that, I guess, a marriage by proxy is considered, well, a marriage. 😉

  19. Hmm, very interesting. not to mention the use of>Eeeeeeeenteresting While people are free to voice their opinions, I did not expect this from someone who is into legalese to pay her bills. For a moment, let us leave the people of Orissa aside. Allow me to present the following so that we can judge with a brader perspective. We are judging right?

    [] All those who sleep with their dogs and cats, please raise your hand. Thank You. [] How many of you remember granny’s tongue action with the dog in Something About Mary? [*] How many of you actually know that bestiality is legal in Sweden and is on the rise?

    Unlike most countries, bestiality is not illegal in Sweden. The legal prohibitions against both bestiality and homosexuality were lifted by the country in 1944. Advancing secularism has played the major role in the sexual radicalization of Sweden. In an article published last year entitled “The End of Marriage in Scandinavia”, author Stanley Kurtz reported “Sweden is probably the most secular country in the world. Secular social scientists (most of them quite radical) have largely replaced clerics as arbiters of public morality.”

    [] Check out who in the world is intrigued by bestiality. [] How many of you remember a certain art movie where a man tries to color is body in stripes so that he can attract the tiger or the tigress. I don’t remember exactly but this was a phenomenon at Cannes.

    ok, you get the drift. Hmm, had this been covered by Nicholas Kristof or someone in the west, it would appear on Sepia Mutiny under a different tone and a headline.

    later //

  20. Hmm, very interesting. not to mention the use of>Eeeeeeeenteresting While people are free to voice their opinions, I did not expect this from someone who is into legalese to pay her bills. For a moment, let us leave the people of Orissa aside. Allow me to present the following so that we can judge with a brader perspective. We are judging right?

    [] All those who sleep with their dogs and cats, please raise your hand. Thank You. [] How many of you remember granny’s tongue action with the dog in Something About Mary? [*] How many of you actually know that bestiality is legal in Sweden and is on the rise?

    Unlike most countries, bestiality is not illegal in Sweden. The legal prohibitions against both bestiality and homosexuality were lifted by the country in 1944. Advancing secularism has played the major role in the sexual radicalization of Sweden. In an article published last year entitled “The End of Marriage in Scandinavia”, author Stanley Kurtz reported “Sweden is probably the most secular country in the world. Secular social scientists (most of them quite radical) have largely replaced clerics as arbiters of public morality.”

    [] Check out who in the world is intrigued by bestiality. [] How many of you remember a certain art movie where a man tries to color is body in stripes so that he can attract the tiger or the tigress. I don’t remember exactly but this was a phenomenon at Cannes.

    ok, you get the drift. Hmm, had this been covered by Nicholas Kristof or someone in the west, it would appear on Sepia Mutiny under a different tone and a headline.

    later prope//er

  21. I’m sorry but John Abraham is already taken. His picture (you know, the one where he has cornrows) and me got married a couple of days ago. So yeah, back off 🙂

  22. I just love that none of this seems weird in their little nook of the world. I’m not sure in what light people are considering this story but since someone mentioned bestiality I just want to say that I don’t think such marriages are meant to be consummated. It’s just supposed to be about commitment and service. This woman will probably continue to worship this snake and feed it milk for the rest of its life and that’s about it. Vive la multiculturalisme!

  23. What if it had been a female cobra ? Would the Indian Government have allowed the same sex marriage to take place ?

  24. @ Divya

    … none of this seems weird in their little nook of the world.<.i>

    Precisely. This is probably the most reasonable response I have read so far. What has transpired in Orissa is odd relative to standards outside the village. The “bestiality” angle was brought in not to suggest that the snake and the woman will somehow get it on but to highlight the hypocrisy in the comments with mildly flavored words such as “consummate” and the following verbiage that comes off as an attempt at humor

    Now, all phallic jokes aside, letÂ’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? IÂ’m assuming this Bimbala Das is a nice Indian girl who didnÂ’t spring the question on it/him?

  25. This article and post feels somewhat ethnocentric. The yahoo article was written in a ‘look at those freaks over there’ tone… Don’t you think? I think I might just be hyper-sentitive to these things. As a person of color, you always gotta wonder if you’re laughing at urself sometimes.

    Anyway, just an exercise in cultural relativity. Given that the Cobra is associated with Lord Shiva in India, isn’t it plausible that this woman conceived of herself as being wedded a God. Isn’t Shiva supposed to take form as Cobra sometimes? If so, how different is that from being a bride of christ, as many nuns are considered to be in certain Christian orders. And so, if Bimbala says she has fallen in love, is it perhaps the cultural equivalent of the ascetic love that nuns profess for Christ in our society?

    I have no explanation for the tribal girl being married to a dog thing. Beats me. But u get my drift….

  26. taz, where will you and Mr Abraham’s poster be honeymooning? Or how about you, Sleepy? (hey, if he posed for more than one picture, that means more than one lady can marry him, right?

  27. The underlying reasons are probably a lot more prosaic. Note that the woman in question is 30, lowercaste and dirtpoor with no prospects for marriage given her situation. Rather than live with the pity or worse, contempt, of her fellow villagers, she has (brilliantly) created for herself a new status (some sort of conversion into the vaishnav sect which is probably something that was not open to her caste before) and achieved almost global fame. She’ll outlive the cobra, live off her reputation or pseudo-divine status and may even earn enough money to set up her siblings. Plus she’s had a wedding that was probably beyond her wildest expectatations- 2000 guests! Nice work.

    The truly weird/freaky ones are the ones like the british woman who went to Israel and married a dolphin. After a 15 year courtship!

  28. Here’s the girl marries dog story. It’s rather sad that stories like this cause so much merriment amongst us ‘sophisticates’.

  29. Sleepy,

    You can have your cornrowed john abraham. I’m going to get married to the “I’m a wanna be boxer in a parking garage” Abraham. Now if only I could find that life size cutout…

    As for our honeymoon, H1Beyatch, I saw a lovely photograph of this beach on the Bahamas. It’s like, getting married to a picture- instead, we are going to vacation in a picture…!

    [It’s late, give me a break…]

  30. It’s just supposed to be about commitment and service. This woman will probably continue to worship this snake and feed it milk for the rest of its life and that’s about it.

    Will she nag him when he slithers home late and hangs out with his snake friends all the time.

  31. Would have smiled if it were a Python a la “The Seductress”, but Cobra. On second thought, the hood of the cobra has a better significance, Lingum and all that

  33. Unless the motivations were the same as those detailed in posts #25 and 27, personally I blame the priests concerned for actually going through with this.

    In any case, if the woman wanted some kind of formalised association with the animal, I don’t know why she couldn’t have tied a rakhee around him instead and just turned him into her “brother”. Why go for marriage, something which is supposedly a romantic association ?

    (PS: Mirax — are you the same person from the Pickled Politics blog ? If so, I’m the same “Jai”).

  34. mirax – I think you are right to point out more concrete, material reasons for this ‘marriage’. Instinctively, I also thought of socio-economic reasons which might explain the motivations behind this event. However, I also find it useful sometimes to recede to my own cultural framework and draw on comparable examples to de-fetishize seemingly bizarre (and humorous!) events like this….(after a laugh or two).

    Jai – I am not sure exactly why she decided to marry the snake. For one, the article doesn’t really give us any context. It’s written specifically to emphasize the outlandishness of the whole thing. So we don’t really know whether ‘marriage’ is even conceptualized romantically. If it is, perhaps she chose ‘marriage’ simply because spinsterhood isn’t well looked upon…(?)

    a.

  35. Jai:

    personally I blame the priests concerned for actually going through with this.

    I would blame the priests if they refused to go through with this. It’s not the priest’s job to judge and decide whether the marriage is suitable, whether it’s a child-marriage, or whether it’s a same-sex marriage or whether it’s marriage between a man and a dog or a woman and a cobra. In Hindu tradition, marriage is a union between two atman (soul/spirit), not a union of two bodies. His job is to make sure that all the proper Vedic rites are completed as per the scriptures.

    M. Nam

  36. It’s not the priest’s job to judge and decide whether the marriage is suitable, whether it’s a child-marriage, or whether it’s a same-sex marriage or whether it’s marriage between a man and a dog or a woman and a cobra. In Hindu tradition, marriage is a union between two atman (soul/spirit), not a union of two bodies. His job is to make sure that all the proper Vedic rites are completed as per the scriptures

    Mashallah! Jai Ram! Now I can marry my pet dog Rufus!

    We must make the California Education Board include this in their revisions.

    Hail Inter Species Conjugality! Mogambo!

  37. MoorNam,

    Do Vedic rites and the associated scriptures condone/approve of child-marriage or marriage between a human and an animal ?

    This is an honest question.

  38. MoorNam:

    In Hindu tradition, marriage is a union between two atman (soul/spirit), not a union of two bodies.

    That’s interesting. I don’t know Vedic scriptures well enough to comment. But that is quite a liberal definition of ‘marriage’. In Canada, we are going to re-open the debate on same-sex marriage and I just finished arguing with my dad about it. So sick and tired of the same old shit. I should quote Vedic scriptures next time I get into this argument with him. Thanks for the insight!

  39. Do Vedic rites and the associated scriptures condone/approve of child-marriage or marriage between a human and an animal ?

    And why not?

    Have you never seen a goat before and thought she might make a good wife?

    Of course MoorNam is not speaking about physical things, he refers only to the soul and atman of the dog and snake and goat. And as Hindus we are able with our 63 billion years of Vedic civilization able to see and evaluate the souls of a goat as we see it. We speak to it. The goat says ‘baah’. We know her soul. We marry the goat. It is the job of the priest to do this. Don’t be such an Abrahamic influenced bigot.

    Hail Bakhra Mogambo!

  40. Jai asks: >>Do Vedic rites and the associated scriptures condone/approve of child-marriage or marriage between a human and an animal ?

    Question: Does the fire in a smith’s workshop condone/approve of mixing of iron with copper or cast iron with purified iron?

    Answer: Fire does not judge. It will melt the two metals into one regardless of their properies. Whether, upon cooling, the combined material corrodes, breaks, becomes brittle, or lasts a thousand years is irrelevant to the fire.

    Similiarly, Vedic rites do not judge the two souls that are to be united.

    M. Nam

  41. Question: Does the fire in a smith’s workshop condone/approve of mixing of iron with copper or cast iron with purified iron? Answer: Fire does not judge. It will melt the two metals into one regardless of their properies. Whether, upon cooling, the combined material corrodes, breaks, becomes brittle, or lasts a thousand years is irrelevant to the fire.

    Hail Mogambo!

    I’m brushing down my tuxedo for my forthcoming wedding to my goldfish, Pinky. She’s been flirting with me for the last month and it’s been love at first gulp. Just me and her in a plastic bag as the priest chants the Vedic rites.

    This non Abrahamic metal shall not corrode, break or become brittle! I will not live in shame of my goldfish love again! Hindu marriage shall not be persecuted by you Abrahamic influenced bigots!

    We’ll take our honeymoon in the San Fransisco Aquarium.

    Hail Carassius auratus auratus Mogambo!

  42. Vedic rites do not judge the two souls that are to be united

    Q. Who established the Vedic rites? Who conducts them during Hindu marriage ceremonies? A. Men.

    Q. You see grown men marrying young girls, children marrying other children, and women marrying non-humans like fish and snakes and trees. Has there ever been an instance of a Hindu man being married off to a virginal banyan tree? Or a Hindu man being married off to a cow, or a frog, or a rock? A. In all likelihood, no.

    It’s misleading to say that Hindu priests are amoral like fire, as you say. Patriarchy is a bitch, so to speak, if you’re a child, woman, tree, or a goat.

  43. Shri MoorNam warned all of you PseudoSecular Mutiny people on the thread below dedicated to the Satanic Witch from Hell and Destroyer of Hinduism Arundhati Roy the following:

    But she has weaknesses that will bring her to doom. I know them, but why would I list them on an open forum? After all, I am shrewd, charismatic myself, and like her I have an agenda too.

    Do not live in shame any more snake and goat and dog lovers!

    It shall no more be the love that speaks its name!

    Shri MoorNam has an agenda!

    Worry no more!

    Everything will be alright!

    And he certainly is charismatic and shrewd.

    Now if you’ll excuse me I have to buy an engagement ring for my darling. Her atman is even more sexy than her fins.

    Hail Mogambo!

  44. AHUJA said: The yahoo article was written in a ‘look at those freaks over there’ tone… Don’t you think? I think I might just be hyper-sentitive to these things. As a person of color, you always gotta wonder if you’re laughing at urself sometimes.

    It’s official: we’re not only rat-eaters, but snake-marryers as well.

  45. I would blame the priests if they refused to go through with this. It’s not the priest’s job to judge and decide whether the marriage is suitable, whether it’s a child-marriage, or whether it’s a same-sex marriage or whether it’s marriage between a man and a dog or a woman and a cobra. In Hindu tradition, marriage is a union between two atman (soul/spirit), not a union of two bodies. His job is to make sure that all the proper Vedic rites are completed as per the scriptures.

    This is very interesting and sounds liberal.. So do you know the meaning of the sanskrit mantras chanted during the marriage?.. Can you explain if you have time..

    How does “caste” come into play?. Is there a caste for that snake??..

  46. This post got me thinking back to when I was in second grade. I can’t even remember how exactly this evolved, but somehow my friends and I decided I was going to get married during recess the following day. And the groom? My desk. Seriously.

    The whole second grade attended my wedding, including those stragglers from other grades who happened to have a few moments to spare (it wasn’t a long, Indian wedding but a quick ceremony). But because we couldn’t take the desk outside, we had a stand-in. My friend Tori (a girl) was the replacement. And my best friend married us.

    We all thought it was so funny, because we were so innocent and assumed we were just being silly. I wonder what they would think if they knew of this story…

  47. Find wierd news like this (and maybe wierder) at snopes.com in the wierd news section

  48. So do you know the meaning of the sanskrit mantras chanted during the marriage?..

    I got married less then a year ago and if I remember correctly, most of the mantras invoked the male and female energy together to form a whole. The fire was used as a witness. The priest blessed us forms of Shiv and Parvati and Ram and Sita etc. A lot of them were blessings from all the Gods across the spectrum and then there were a lot of mantras and rituals particular to the Gujurat region that me and my husband are from.

    In this snake wedding, they probably used the same male and female energy getting together to form a whole concept.

  49. This post should’ve been under the ‘Humour’ category.

    Having said that:

    Moornam:In Hindu tradition, marriage is a union between two atman (soul/spirit), not a union of two bodies.

    It should be, ‘not just a union of two bodies’. Because, the purpose of an elaborate, ritual-laden marriage ceremony is for a man and a woman to become a couple in the eyes of the society, with the holy fire as the witness.

    Where there is no ceremony and the couple just decide to cohabit, that would still be considered an acceptable form of union in Hindu tradition (Gandharva Vivaha a la Sakuntala and Dushyant). Going by this, one can say that most ‘live in’ relationships or ‘love marriages’ where there is only a civil wedding (marriage registration) and no rituals in a temple, church etc., could all be considered Gandharva Vivahas, and have the weight of vedic tradition’s approval behidn them (Go for it !).

    And then there are other forms of marriages as well. Fortunately, some of the blatantly patriarchal forms have only been recognized, but not considered acceptable.

    Fundamentalism (being too literal about the scriptures) is definitely not the Hindu tradition.