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But Vrindavan has its darker, less-loving side - it is known as "the city of widows".
Spend a little while observing the pilgrims coming in and out of the temples and you see these widows - usually quite elderly women - dressed in simple white and often begging.
Widows in India no longer throw themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands. But life for them can still be hard.
Considered inauspicious, many soon find they have lost their income and are ostracised in their home villages. Some are sent away by their husbands' families who want to prevent them inheriting money or property.
Nobody can quite explain why this particular town attracts widows from all around India - particularly, it seems, from Bengal.
There are as many as 6,000 of them in this place alone and more in the surrounding countryside. Full story...
Related posts:
But Vrindavan has its darker, less-loving side - it is known as "the city of widows".
Spend a little while observing the pilgrims coming in and out of the temples and you see these widows - usually quite elderly women - dressed in simple white and often begging.
Widows in India no longer throw themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands. But life for them can still be hard.
Considered inauspicious, many soon find they have lost their income and are ostracised in their home villages. Some are sent away by their husbands' families who want to prevent them inheriting money or property.
Nobody can quite explain why this particular town attracts widows from all around India - particularly, it seems, from Bengal.
There are as many as 6,000 of them in this place alone and more in the surrounding countryside. Full story...
Related posts:
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