This ancient Hindu ritual has hit the headlines these days for wrong reasons thanks to Mr.Digambar Kamat but I wonder how many of us Goans know the origin of this ritual called Prasad .
Goa which was earlier known as Govarashtra or Goprashtra was a region inhabited by cow herds and nomadic tribes and is mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharata .
It was the Aryans who first brought Hinduism to Goa, in between the first and second wave of Aryans the Sumerians came to Goa and amongst other things brought the Temple culture which eventually spread to other parts of south India.
According to the renowned historian Shri. Anant Dhume who has done deep research in 2000 B.C, the Sumerians from Sumer now part of Iraq came and settled in Goa .
Their advent produced changes in the thinking process and the Aryan customs were modified.
The land belongs to the King was an Aryan concept ,the Sumerian concept that was adopted was that the land belonged to the village God or Goddess
and as such the land within its boundaries was indivisible.
Another ancient practice which was introduced by the Sumerians was the consultation of the Oracle now called as Parsada or Prasad wherein the devotees seek blessings and guidance from the divine.
The ritual is normally performed after paying obeisance to the deity , thereafter leaves of special plants or petals of certain flowers are stuck to the small spikes on a flat iron circular surface of stone or metal or on the side of a linga or statue of the deity.
The devotee than poses a question or makes a wish , the priest interprets the decision of the deity on the basis of what happens to the leaves or petals which are stuck namely which falls first and from which particular spot.
It is amazing that this divine instructions of the deity are scrupulously adhered to and firmly respected.
In fact it is not only the Hindus of Goa that throng to the temples for Prasad but also many Christians beleive and follow this ancient ritual to this very day.
Having said that the intentions of the devotees have to be clean with no ulterior motives and one is not expected to approach the divine with a crooked mind .
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