ohmidog!

According to the BBC, a two-year-old boy in eastern India has been married to a dog in a traditional ceremony. The wedding took place Monday in a tribal village. According to the boy’s father, such ceremonies are traditional in the area and are intended to protect children from bad luck and other dangers. In this case, the child developed a tooth rooted in his upper gum, considered a bad omen.

The young bridegroom, Sagula Munda, was conducted to the home of the dog, Jyoti, in a highly-decorated rickshaw for the hour-long ceremony. In photographs, Jyoti seems to be wearing a silver collar for the occasion. The ceremony concluded with a feast, and the bride later visited the verandah at the groom’s home for a couple of hours.

Apparently, arranging such marriages is common in the area. The practice honors the tribe’s deity. India’s great religious epic, the Mahabharat, recounts how a dog helped the story’s heroes to reach heaven. The “weddings” have about the same significance as wearing an amulet or talisman, and Sagula will continue to live normally with his family and will be free to marry an actual human bride when he’s of an appropriate age.   He, his family, and their neighbors in the village are now believed to be protected from the ghosts and evil spirits that might be tempted to visit because of the defective tooth.

A similar wedding took place in India about two years ago when a grown man married a dog. Years previously, he had killed two dogs, and the slayings apparently caused a sixteen-year run of bad luck. His hope was that the marriage would lift the curse and put an end to his troubles.

Of course I can’t help noticing that Jyoti is a classic and typical pariah-type dog of India, similar to the one in the picture below. According to scientists, this is what dogs look like when their breeding isn’t tinkered with by humans, and it’s probably what they looked like before we began developing the various breeds. That being the case, Jyoti is the perfect ohmidog! mutt. (The word “pariah” isn’t pejorative when you use it about a dog.)

A "Pariah" Dog, the ultimate mutt