It Tolls For Devi
Deliver the goods or be prepared to step down. That’s the ultimatum residents of Agasaga village in Karnataka’s Belgaum district have given their goddess, Masanakawwa or Masayidevi. There hasn’t been a theft there for decades and the villagers attribute this to the goddess’s powers. The last reported burglary took place 80 years ago when the temple itself was robbed—only for the stolen items to turn up inside it days later. Villagers have traditionally left their doors open and kept farming equipment outside. But with the temple bells having been stolen recently, the villagers decided to put Masanakawwa to the test. Locking the priest-less temple’s entrance with an iron chain, they told her that if she fails to retrieve the bells and ‘settle everything’ in nine days, she can’t expect any more worship.
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