Superstition drives bangle rush in Telangana towns

It was a virtual run for bangles in three Telangana districts of Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar with a demand for nine different color bangles. A superstition to wear nine color bangles before Ugadi festival to ward off evil spirits and bad omen to husbands and sons sent the womenfolk of the three north Telangana districts dizzy with bangle buying.

Thousands of married women and yet to be married girls went on a bangle spree after rumors spread that wearing bangles of nine different colours would make their spouses and lover boys immune from any banamati acts of rivals, lorn starved women or jealous neighbors.

Thousands of women even the ones in tribal hamlets rushed to nearby towns in search of bangles. Shopkeepers ran out of stock by mid afternoon and had to rush more supply from Godowns. Serpentine queues were witnessed at fancy stores across these three districts; At Adilabad and Karimnagar, police had to intervene to control the heavy rush.

The ‘bangle rumour' started in Warangal, where a local deity is rumored to have conveyed the message, through an oracle, that women should wear bangles in nine different colors before Ugadi for the safety of their sons. By noon, the rumour had spread to the entire district.

Even as the women, cutting across religious and caste lines, began purchasing bangles in Warangal district, a similar rumour spread in neighbouring Khammam district that the life of all married men was in peril and to keep them away from evil, women should wear "navrangi" bangles. Women in Karimnagar district too joined the mad rush for bangles in a bid to protect their families from the ‘lurking evil forces'.