The Giant Swing

In the old Brahmin ceremony, teams of young men swung on a plank in huge arcs, trying to snatch a bag of silver coins from a pole — with their teeth. After repeated fatal falls, the ritual was banned in 1935. The frame has stood swing-less ever since.

The ceremony re-enacted a creation myth: Shiva descends to a newborn Earth held steady by naga serpents. The pillars are the mountains; the swinging tested whether the world was stable.