New Delhi -
Scores of villagers attended a fancy wedding arranged for two monkeys in India's eastern state of Bihar, news reports said on Tuesday.
The wedding was organised in the Bettiah district on Monday evening by a daily-wage worker who said he considered the male monkey as his own son, the online edition of the Hindi language daily Daily Bhaskar reported.
The “groom” named Ramu and his “bride” Ramdulari were featured in a procession on top of a jeep decorated with flowers and ribbons with a brass band in tow playing popular tunes.
Dozens of villagers lined the streets, cheering and dancing while others took photographs on their mobile phones.
Photographs showed Ramu wearing a yellow long-sleeve shirt, embracing Ramdulari, dressed in a pink frock amid smiling villagers and their children.
The worker, Udesh Mahato told the daily that he had purchased Ramu seven years ago, and later bought Ramdulari from a village fair. When the two simians started liking each other, Mahato decided to unite them in wedlock, the report said.
The wedding rites were solemnised by a Hindu priest amid chanting of mantras at an astrologically auspicious time after which the villagers were treated to a feast.
Monkeys are considered sacred by Hindus. The simians are treated as descendents of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman and are often fed by devotees at Hindu temples.
In September, nearly 200 people shaved their heads in central India to mourn the death of a monkey in their village. - Sapa-dpa