DUDHAI/ SURENDRANAGAR: It could well be mistaken for an orphanage. Boys, mostly between two and five, play on the compound of the Vadvala temple in this dusty village. They are all adopted children, after their parents, belonging to the Rabari community, abandoned them there.

But, nobody here raises an eyebrow. It’s been a 300-year-old tradition, where a family prays for a male child or more than one son in the family and makes a ‘mannat’ (pledge) to give away one of the sons to the temple. At times, even a single child, if it is a boy, is also given away. Called the ‘ramta kariya’, which translated literally means ‘left to play’, it is a way to show gratitude.

“People pray for two to three sons. If their wish is fulfilled, they offer one of the sons, generally youngest, to the temple,” says
Rambalakdasji, chief priest of the temple. Rambalakdasji was also left in the temple by his parents when he was two years old.

At present, there are 13 boys in the temple and the tradition does not permit a girl child to be given away here. The temple legally adopts these children once their parents decide to “donate” them. Their original names are changed. Even surnames are changed to ‘Dudhrejia’. The boys are nurtured here and admitted to the best English medium schools in Ahmedabad.

“It would have been impossible for me to put my son in an English medium school. We can also meet him whenever we want to,” says Jogabhai, an agriculture labourer at Khatdi village, whose second son Harekrishna was given away to the temple. He studies in HB Kapadia School in Ahmedabad. Jogabhai had pledged that if he got a third son, he would give away his second son to the temple.

The chief priest says that once these children turn 21, they are given a choice — whether to become a priest or lead a family life.

Recently, three-year-old Darshan of Bhimasar village near Anjar joined other boys in the temple. Unable to bear a child, his mother had pledged to give away her first child. The youngest member at the temple is Jaykrishna, who is just two, from Barvala village near Morbi.