Villages with Snakes, Millionaires, and No Doors:
India’s stunning environment is home to countless wonderful and picturesque villages. Nearly 7 lakh villages in India have remarkable and interesting cultures! Let’s look at 8 unique and fascinating Indian settlements that are each captivating in their own way. These are model villages in India that have served as an inspiration to the entire country. Let’s have a look at these 8 settlements with remarkable accomplishments!
1. Shetphal – Shetpal village, 200 km from Pune, contains cobras in every house, which are worshipped on a regular basis by its 2,600 people who live in harmony with them.
Shetpal is a hamlet in Maharashtra’s Solapur district that is well-known for its connection to snakes. In Shetpal, people consider snakes as well as human beings while building homes. Cobras, more exactly!
Live cobras have a spot to rest in the rafters of each home in this village. Even though there is a live cobra that moves around the home every day, everyone around it has never had a cobra bite. What a peaceful way of living!
2. Hiware Bazar – The village, Hiware Bazar, is located in the Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra, India. It is well-known for its irrigation system and water conservation programme, which it has combat drought and drinking water issues.
It was sinking into the darkness after damaging its surroundings. However, in less than a decade, it transformed itself into one of the wealthiest towns in the country. There was no wand, only common sense. It employed government subsidies to renew its natural resources, forests, watershed, and soil under the leadership of a strong village authority.
Its development strategy was modelled on the village of Ralegan Siddhi, 35 km distant in the same area, which was turned around by Anna Hazare. Hiware Bazar is now an example for the entire Ahmednagar district, where others have utilised the same conservation and development strategy.
Hiware Bazar, an area populated by 54 millionaires. It was formerly impoverished and parched. It now has approximately 60 millionaire farmers, with an average monthly per capita income of Rs.30, 000.
3. Shani Shingnapur – Shani Shingnapur is a hamlet in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The hamlet is famous for its prominent temple of Shani, the Hindu god connected with the planet (graha) Saturn, which is located in Nevasa taluka in Ahmednagar district. Shingnapur is 35 km away from Ahmednagar.
Shingnapur is additionally known for having no doors in the village, only door frames. Despite this, no thefts were recorded in the village.
The temple is believed to be a “jagrut devasthan”, which means that the temple icon still houses a god. Villagers believe that the deity Shani punishes anybody who attempts to steal. The god here is “Swayambhu” (“self-evolved deity”) that is self-emerged from earth in form of black, imposing stone. This door less villages is well-known for its lack of theft; even banks without doors. Without worry, valuables and money are left out in the open. Also there is no need of cops.
4. Kuldhara – Kuldhara is an abandoned village which sits in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. It was once a flourishing community filled by Paliwal Brahmins, having been established during the 13th century. It was abandoned by the early 19th century for unknown causes, such as diminishing water supplies, an earthquake, or, according to local folklore, wrongdoing made up by Jaisalmer State’s minister Salim Singh.
Kuldhara gained reputation as a haunted location over the years, and the Rajasthan government decided to develop it as a tourist destination in the 2010s.
The town had been abandoned by the 19th century for unexplained causes. Lack of water and the atrocities of a Diwan (official) named Salim Singh (or Zalim Singh) were mentioned as possible causes in the 20th century.
According to local mythology, Salim Singh, the harsh minister of Jaisalmer, placed unreasonable taxes on the hamlet, causing it to fall. However, according to one version of the folklore, the community was abandoned overnight.
The town had been abandoned by the 19th century for unexplained causes. Lack of water and the atrocities of a Diwan (official) named Salim Singh (or Zalim Singh) were mentioned as possible causes in the 20th century.
According to local mythology, Salim Singh, the harsh minister of Jaisalmer, placed unreasonable taxes on the hamlet, causing it to fall. However, according to one version of the folklore, the community was abandoned overnight.
According to one tale, the lecherous minister Salim Singh got enchanted by a beautiful girl from the village. He ordered his guards to force the villagers to handover the girl. The locals requested the guards to return the following morning and left the town overnight.
According to another tale by folklore, Salim Singh desired to marry the village head’s daughter. When the people refused, they cursed Kuldhara and disappeared over night.
Also as per one another story, 83 additional villages in the vicinity were also abandoned overnight.
5. Mattur – Mattur (or Mathoor) is a village in Shivamogga district, close to the city of Shivamogga in Karnataka state, India. It is acknowledged for its use of Sanskrit for day-to-day communication. Considering the fact, Kannada is the state’s official language.
Mattur, is about four km away from Shivamogga, and has long been recognised as an epicentre of learning for Sanskrit and Vedic studies. According to copper plate inscriptions preserved by the archaeology department, the monarch of Vijayanagara gifted Mattur and surrounding Hosahalli to the people in 1512.
Mattur village, Karnataka
Sanskrit is the primary language of the majority of the 5,000 inhabitants in this village and it is also a required subject in schools. This rare trait received a significant boost in 1982 when Vishvesha Theertha, pontiff of Udupi’s Pejawara Matha, visited the Mattur and entitled it as “the Sanskrit village”. The village has produced over 30 professors of Sanskrit who teach in universities all over Karnataka.
Mattur a Sanskrit speaking village
Hosahalli, Mattur’s twin hamlet, possesses nearly every of Mattur’s characteristics. Hosahalli is located on the other banks of the Tunga River. These two villages are nearly always referenced together. Mattur and Hosahalli are well-known for their support to Gamaka art, a unique form of singing and storytelling in Karnataka.
It is the only village in the whole nation where 90% of locals regularly speak Sanskrit to one another.
6. Korlai – Korlai is located 150 km south of Mumbai (Bombay) in Maharashtra, India, in the Raigad district (Colaba district) of the Konkan division titled after the Colaba fort.
Around 1,000 people live in the Korlai village in the Korlai fort, which was once owned by the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay. They speak Korlai Portuguese, an Indo-Portuguese creole based on the Portuguese language.
The speakers themselves refer to their language as Korlai creole, Korlai Portuguese, Kristi, or Now-ling, which in Portuguese means “our language”. The speakers are members of an extremely close-knit group of people who identify as the Kristi community and who share an attachment to India’s Roman Catholic Christian faith.
Korlai Village, view from Korlai Fort
Korlai Fort
Everyone who lives in the Korlai village speaks Portuguese, complete with names and cuisine. It was created by the Portuguese, and the people have kept the distinctive tradition alive for decades.
7. Rongdoi – Rongdoi is a village in the Morongi Tehsil in the Golaghat District of Assam, India. It resides 20 kilometres west of the district headquarters in Golaghat and 248 kilometres from the state capital in Dispur.
Rongdoi is bounded to the east by Golaghat North Tehsil, to the east by Golaghat East Tehsil, to the east by Golaghat Tehsil, and to the west by Golaghat West Tehsil. Rongdoi’s neighbouring cities include Golaghat, Jorhat, Mariani, and Itanagar.
This place lies in the boundary of the Golaghat and Sivasagar districts, with the Sivasagar District Demow facing east. Rongdoi’s local language is Assamese, according to its demographics.
Unique fact about this village is, Frogs are married off for rainfall in this Indian village. There are a wide range of superstitious beliefs in India, and this from Rongdoi is certainly the one no one has ever heard of.
The people of this Indian hamlet marry off wild frogs in order to appease the God of Rain Varun. The extraordinary pattern of frog marriage distinguishes Rongdoi as an exceptional hamlet in India.
Frog marriages here are planned in order of pleasing the rain God. Villagers assemble until late at night to observe the marriage in the hope that it will bring rain.
8. Kodinhi – Kodinhi is a town in Kerala’s Malappuram district. The hamlet is located near the town of Tirurangadi and is home to approximately 2,000 families as of 2008.
The hamlet, governed by the Nannambra panchayat, acquired international renown due to the extremely high number of multiple births in the area, notably twins, despite India having one of the lowest twin rates in the world. The Twins and Kins Association, the first twins’ organisation in the nation, was also established in this hamlet.
The settlement is located around 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Malappuram, the district’s administrative centre, and about 35 kilometres (22 km) south of Calicut. With the exception of one side, which connects it to the town of Tirurangadi, the settlement is encircled by backwaters.
The community came to worldwide attention when a local study discovered an exceptionally high incidence of twin births in the area. A story by The New Indian Express Staff Correspondent Mithosh Joseph from Malappuram has brought the appeal of the place to the attention of various individuals beyond India.
Initial estimates put the number of multiple births at 100 pairs, but further surveys revealed that the number was really closer to 204 pairs (408 individuals), including two sets of triplets. Doctors believe that the toxins in the water in the Kodinhi region are responsible for this phenomenon.
The oldest twin pair in the community, in the opinion of the villagers, was born in 1949. Around the years, there have been more twin births in Kodinhi, with surveys revealing around 79 pairs of twins in the 0–10 age group.
The majority of twins in the nation live in this village. The town, which has a population of 2000 families, is estimated to have at least 400 pairs of twins.
This how India describes its uniqueness! Explore these beautiful villages throughout this blog. It will surely amaze you with their unique things, rituals and various facts.