Two girls exchange garlands, apply vermilion at Varanasi temple

VARANASI: Dhagadbir Hanuman temple in Virbhanpur of Rohania area hogged the limelight since Tuesday afternoon when two cousin girls reached there to tie the nuptial knot.
Clad in jeans and T-shirt, they wore a 'chunari' before applying vermilion and exchanging garlands to complete the wedding rituals and left in an auto.
At around 1 pm, when marriage of a couple from Kursato village was being performed in the temple, two girl reached there in an auto, recalled Gopalji, who looks after the accounts and records of the temple.

"They said that they have come from Kanpur for their marriage. On asking about their grooms, they said that they wanted to marry each other," he said adding that they said that they were cousins, good friends and wanted to spend life with each other.
The girls said that their families will separate them by marrying them to someone else. When Gopalji said that he can't help them they asked others present in the temple about the place where marriages take place. They were told about a Shiva temple in the Dhagadbir Hanuman temple premises and they reached there.

One of the priests of the temple Bachanu said that after sitting in the temple for a few minutes they took out chunaris from their bags and wore them. Later, after offering prayers they applied vermilion to each other and exchanged garlands and mangalsutras in front of the idols of the deities.
Another priest Shiv Shankar Tiwari, who was performing another marriage in the temple, said that many people present in the temple attending other marriages reached the place to have a glimpse of the duo.