Imphal, July 03 2009: Exactly one week after Manipur's King Leishemba Sanajaoba's rain invoking prayers to the Almighty, a group of devotees prayed for rains and milked the cows at the historic Shri Shri Govindajee Temple complex as per Manipuri faith to invoke the rain gods today.

Ruling MLA Elangbam Kunjeshwar, who is also Vice-Chairperson of Shri Shri Govindajee Temple Board Manipur, led today's rain invoking prayers cum milking of cows in the morning.

He told this reporter, "We perform this as per our belief in view of the drought like situation".

Since time immemorial, the traditional ritual of prayers to call rain used to be held under different nomenclatures from time to time.

When Wahengbam Nipamacha, a devotee of Shri Shri Govindajee was the Chief Minister of Manipur, had milked 108 cows at the temple in an attempt to call rains to combat the last drought in Manipur (1998-99) .

A series of prayer rituals were also performed since early morning by Bramha Sabha of the temple prior to the milking of the cows in the presence of MLA Kunjeshwar.

Besides honouring and feeding the cows in front of the Shri Shri Gobindajee, the devotees milked the cows.

Later, the Vice Chairperson of the Temple Board led the devotees in sprinkling up the milk to invoke rain in front of the temple.

"So far we have performed this kind of prayers twice", said 86 year-old Kshetrimayum Anganghal, who serves as a Keibungba in the temple for the last 60 years.

The last prayer was held a decade ago, he added.

According to Dr Lisham Herachandra, owner of the cows who hails from Thambalkhong village in Imphal East district, the practice of milking cows to invoke rain is an old tradition since the kings' period.

Re-calling the tale of digging Ningthem Pukhree, one of Manipur's largest ponds during King Pamheiba's regime wherein the mother of a new-born baby milched, Dr Herachandra, a nature-curist by profession felt, "As per our belief, such tradition worked in ancient times".

The Ningthem Pukhree is located at Wangkhei in Imphal East district.

"We've a close relationship with the gods and godesses when the nature was young", the nature-curist opined, "now things have changed drastically due to many reasons".

Exactly one week back, a possible monsoon failure and a resultant drought in Manipur had moved king Leishemba Sanajaoba to lead a royal palace team to pray the Almighty God by singing rain-invoking songs.

All such traditional practices followed the state government's declaration recently that Manipur was facing a drought-like situation due to scanty rainfall.

The Meteorological authority said, the state received 475 mm of rainfall this year compared to 739.50 mm of rain by end-June last year posing a problem for farmers.

Though the State authority claimed to have earmarked Rs 4.41 crore to tackle a possible drought, opposition firebrand O Joy of Manipur People's Party on the first day of ongoing state assembly session blasted the ruling Ibobi ministry for failure to include the burning global warming issue in the Governor's address which was discussed today.

"I'm not criticizing the government, but suggesting to do something for the global warming, "he said.

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