Some Indians Are Performing ‘Corona Devi’ Puja to Ward the Virus off

As India reaches an unprecedented number of coronavirus cases, collective panic among people has once again led them to turn towards the divine for relief. In early March, when the country had merely 100 cases of coronavirus, a video of a group of women from Rajasthan singing a newly composed folk song called, “Corona Bhaag Ja (corona go away)” had gone viral. Now, almost three months later, residents of the eastern Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, and West Bengal are once again going viral for performing a ‘Corona Devi’ puja—a ritual where they believe the virus would disappear if they pleased the devi (goddess) through their prayers and offerings.

In parts of northern Assam, women flocked to the banks of a river on Saturday, June 6, and performed the ritual. “We are offering puja to Corona Maa (mother). Once the puja gets over, a wind will blow and destroy the virus,” a woman told The New Indian Express. Another woman said, “We are here to pray for everyone so that the virus disappears from the world”.

In India, the tradition of devi or goddess worship goes back thousands of years, and while some devis are embodiments of earthly possessions or qualities we seek (like money or knowledge), the depictions of devis slaying demons make for common motifs as well.

Apart from Assam, a few locals from West Bengal hired a priest for a ritual too. They offered sweets, hibiscus flowers, and sugary drinks to the ‘goddess’ after fasting for a day. The offerings were buried once the ritual was over. The priest said that the puja was performed to rid the world of the virus. Women in several parts of Bihar have been offering jaggery syrups, laddoos, flowers, and, in some cases, even poha (flattened rice) to the water bodies, to get rid of the pandemic. Last week, a large number of women gathered in parts of Jharkhand along with puja materials—like sindoor (vermillion), flowers, ladoos and water—to sit under trees and worship the “coronavirus goddess.”

In many north Indian societies—including several Buddhist and tribal communities—people worshipped a goddess called ‘Sheetala Devi’, or literally, ‘the goddess who cools’. She was believed to have the power to treat sores, ghouls and diseases—people gave her offerings and in turn, got relief from their ailments.

However, the irony here is that during a ritual meant to protect themselves from the virus, many women were neither wearing masks or other protective gear nor were they following social distancing norms. From June 8, places of worship across India have been allowed to open up, despite critics pointing out that with the number of cases only going up in India, this is actually a terrible idea. Meanwhile, the current coronavirus cases tally in India on the morning of June 8 stands at 258,090 cases with 126,788 active cases and 7,207 deaths.

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