World | India
'Pinda daan' online? Never, say Hindu priests in Gaya
Priests in this Hindu holy town, where thousands of Indians go every year to perform the last rites of their ancestors - called pind daan - are up in arms against a move to introduce an online version of the ritual.
- IANS
- Published: 23:26 July 3, 2009
Gaya: Priests in this Hindu holy town, where thousands of Indians go every year to perform the last rites of their ancestors - called pind daan - are up in arms against a move to introduce an online version of the ritual.
Known as pandas, the priests who have been conducting pind daan for centuries, described the Bihar government's decision as an "interference" and an "attack on an age-old religious service".
"We fail to understand the motive to introduce online pind daan. It is not possible because a devotee's physical presence is necessary to perform the rituals," Mahesh Prasad Gupta, a priest, said.
Rajan Sijuar, another priest in this town, about 100 kilometres from state capital Patna, said the government's decision to introduce online pind daan was the "brainchild of those who have no knowledge of this ritual".
"A man sitting in America or Europe cannot perform pind daan online. This offering is only possible in Gaya, nowhere else."
Last week, Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi announced the government's decision to introduce a video conferencing facility for Indians abroad for pind daan.
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