Bengaluru: Taking a leaf out of Tamil Nadu's book on ways to please the rain Gods, the Karnataka government too has ordered temples in the state to perform special pujas in order to be blessed with bountiful rains.

In an order issued on Friday, prominent temples, which come under the Muzrai Department and are 'financially sound', have been asked to perform parjanya japa or special pujas on June 6 to invoke the rain Gods.

The government order states that temples have performed such pujas whenever the state has faced drought in the past. Similarly, this year too, financially-strong temples have been asked to conduct rituals like abhisheka, homas starting from the Brahmi Muhurata- early morning. The temple authorities will also be permitted to use up to Rs 10,001 from the donation boxes in order to organise these pujas.

The state government has declared 156 of the 176 taluks in the state as drought-hit, with many villages in northern Karnataka facing acute water shortage.

On April 26th, the Tamil Nadu government's Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department (HR&CE) had issued a similar circular asking temples to invoke divine intervention by performing pujas and ragas for rainfall.