Most people wouldn’t dare touch a live scorpion, but in a small village in India, people can put venomous spiders and scorpions on their faces without any worries.
Every year on Naga Panchami , when most Indians worship the cobra god, the Kandakoor people 20km from Yadgir, Karnataka state worship the goddess Scorpion (scorpion). Men, women, children, the elderly, will all line up to go up a nearby hill called Chellina Betta, where the statue of Kondammai is worshiped.
People will wear saree, their traditional dress, bring coconut and oil to sacrifice, pray for health, peace, prosperity. Once the ritual is over, they will start looking for scorpions to play with.
True to its name, Scorpion Hill is home to a large number of scorpions. A special thing is that these scorpions appear extremely dense on Naga Panchami holiday. On normal days, they appear very few and very difficult to find. However, on this big holiday, they crawl out a lot, so people can easily find and play with them. This may seem hard to believe but in 2016 an Indian article reported on this strange thing.
People caught scorpions, holding them in their hands without showing any signs of fear. They will then let them crawl on their hands, feet, and faces. The bravest will put them inside their mouths, believing that if they do, Kondammai will protect them.
The scenes taken in Kandakoor are not widely circulated, few people know about this scorpion worshiping ritual. So this year the appearance in the media has attracted a large number of people interested. The followers increased and many curious people also came to this place to admire this strange practice.
Up to this point, this ritual has not caused any casualties, everyone feels very happy playing with the scorpions. In daily life, people here also show great respect for this reptile.
Today, in addition to the Kandakoor ethnic group, the scorpion temple has now attracted thousands of devotees from neighboring states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to visit and join.