April 24,2012 was celebrated as Akshaya Thrithiyai a festival recently rediscovered to buy gold. It all started five years ago when a smart jeweler in our town caught hold of a so called Prohit to sow a belief that will boost his sales. A Prohit is a person who projects himself to have great knowledge of Hindu rituals and dresses him self in distinctly peculiar ways, fore head shaved and the hair left to grow long on the back is tied in a knot. They wear some religious marks on the temple either three horizontal bands of holy ash or a white U or Y mark having a red line in the middle. Just as one does not question an automobile mechanic, people in India do not question these Prohits also. It is understood that there are some Veda Schools that teach the authentic techniques for the popular rituals and the Vedic rhymes that are to be chanted as mantras during the rituals. But most of these Prohits do not study there. They gain the knowledge of these mantras from some senior Prohit. Th
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