They pour burning coal over women’s heads

Virdi: Just a hop across the Goa border, in Virdi in Maharashtra, 70-year-old Rukmini Gawas looks every bit the docile village housewife, who points to the men folk when asked to narrate the reason behind the rare Shigmo practices of the village involving women.
But when the moment arrives where burning coal is scooped into a pan and poured three times over her head, there is not a hint of hesitation in Rukmini’s body language as she stands covered in a fully white sari which is dampened with water before the practice.Her face is covered with the open end of the sari serving as the veil.
Women are central in this village to the celebrations of Shigmo, a festival where rituals otherwise revolve almost solely around men where it is held in Goa and surrounding regions. The women who take part in the ritual are commonly referred to as inglekarin.
Four other women, after Rukmini, take their positions one by one as they are bathed in coal outside the Sateri temple in the village, as a large crowd gathers for the event that marks the culmination of the five-day Shigmo festivities in Virdi.
“The five women represent wives of the five men who were original settlers in the village. The history of the practice dates back to over 3000BC according to inscriptions that were found in the village, but now remain destroyed. The practice recalls the bravery of the women from the five families as they supported their husbands through the tough times and invasions that came their way,” says Vishram Gaudde.
The five original families have grown and split into several ones today, and each year a different woman offers to take part in the practice from each of these households.
“In the over 50 years that I have been married, my turn has come several times to take part in the practice. It does not hurt at all as the sari we are wearing is completely wet and our heads and faces are covered with the pallu,” says Rukmini.
Though Rukmini and her four companions seem very casual about their courage in bearing the hot coal, the task is more challenging than they make it appear as the women survive a day before the practice consuming nothing but water. They also have to survive the chill of the night sleeping at the Siddh Ganeshnath Mutt, near the Sateri temple.
“We cannot wear anything other than the white sari, even on the previous day, till the pouring of the coal is over. We cannot even cover ourselves with a quilt on the night before. Nobody is supposed to touch us during this period as well,” another woman, Chandravati Bandekar says.
The festivities begin in the village on the first full moon day after Shigmo and end on the fifth day with the coal pouring ritual, followed by dhond or fasting men dancing inside the Sateri temple in circular movements to loud folk music.
Satvasheela Gawas, one among the five women, is the only one of them who wasn’t born in Virdi, but she says she doesn’t experience even a bit of fear.
“Ample precautions are taken when the coal is poured. Only the night before the ritual can be tough as one has to lay on the cold floor of the temple,” Satvasheela says.