Indian islanders resort to curative waters from a healing well

Lakshadweep, June 3 (ANI): Muslims in Lakshadweep believe that water from a well adjacent to the Ujra Mosque at the Kavaratti Island off the Arabian Coast of India has curative properties.

This water, they believe, can cure everything from high fever, cough and cold to even diseases like cholera, Chickenpox and other skin diseases.

The islanders have so much faith in the properties of this water that they often bring their ailing children to the well before taking them to a doctor. The well is believed to have cured people in the past.

"When our children get sick we have a belief that by bringing them to this place and giving them a bath for three to seven days removes all types of diseases. We have full faith in this mosque and its water," said Rabada Begum, a resident.

Ujra mosque, famed for its medicinal and curative water well is also the most beautiful mosque in Kavaratti Island. It is one of the fifty two mosques spread over the small pristine island.

The mosque has an ornately ceiling said to have been carved from a piece of driftwood. The patterns are intricate, picked out in harmonious shades of pale green and dark red.

Lakshadweep comprising 12 atolls, three reefs and five submerged banks is the smallest Union Territory. It is located about 250 kilometres west off the Kerala coast.

There are 36 tiny islands on these sub-marine banks, with a total area of just about 32 sq. kilometres with a predominantly Muslim population of over 75,000. By Juhan Samuel (ANI)