Boy’s ‘divine dream’ leads villagers to excavate forest land to find idols in Kothagudem

It was said that a school dropout, Ashok of the village told his family members and the villagers that Lord Shiva appeared to him in a dream and told him that the idols were buried inside the earth for many years and the idols have to be unearthed to build a temple.

Kothagudem: In a rather strange development, villagers started digging a forest land based on a boy’s ‘soothsaying’ that idols of lord Shiva and Nandi were hidden beneath the land.

The incident occurred at Kamalapuram village in Manugur mandal in the district. It was said that a school dropout, Ashok of the village told his family members and the villagers that Lord Shiva appeared to him in a dream and told him that the idols were buried inside the earth for many years and the idols have to be unearthed to build a temple.

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A resident, Krishna told the media that initially they did not believe the boy, but he kept saying that there were idols under the earth at a place near the village. The boy used to pour milk and break coconuts in that location for the past several weeks. A few days ago the villagers decided to give a try to what the boy said and started digging the earth at the site shown by the boy on Monday. The process continued on Tuesday and Wednesday but the villagers could not find any idol even after excavating soil to a depth of six and half feet. The eager villagers also readied water, flowers, incense sticks to perform pooja and ‘Abhishekam’ to the idols.

Forest officials initially allowed the villagers to dig out the soil to find the idols and build a temple if the idols were found. However the officials stopped the villagers continuing with their task of unearthing the idols as the boy, under a state of trance, showed another location, where he felt the idols were.

The boy’s father Narasimha stated that his 15-year-old son had studied till eighth class and stopped going to school during the Covid outbreak. The boy worked as a mechanic for sometime in Hyderabad and came back to Manugur. The boy was not talking to others for the last four months and was visiting the forest area for the last few weeks.

Meanwhile, several locals maintained that it was a move to occupy the forest area. The boy and his father were trying to mislead the forest department officials in the name of Lord Shiva and creating superstitions among the people, the locals said.