BOKARO: Residents of Bokaro, Jharkhand , have started worshipping a pumpkin believing it to be a reincarnation of Shiva.

The 87kg pumpkin has become the talk of the town with people thronging the town’s biggest vegetable market Dundibagh to worship the vegetable.

The pumpkin was found on Saturday by Umesh Kumar, a wholesaler, in his stock from Ara district of Bihar. Kumar said it was for the first time in his 40 years of business life that he saw such a huge vegetable.

“Seeing it, I had an intuition that it is Lord Shiva . The pumpkin is oval in shape similar to a ‘Shivalinga’. So I worship the pumpkin and offered it garlands and sweets,” Kumar said.

The news about the ‘Shiva’ pumpkin spread like wildfire and local people rushed to get a ‘darshan’ of it. “The pumpkin is like a Shivalinga and it blessed me and my family,” said Guddu Singh, a devotee.

Many have tried to buy the pumpkin from Kumar offering him as high as Rs 5,001 and more but Kumar refused. “How can I sell my god,” Kumar said.

After consulting a priest, it has been decided the pumpkin must be worshipped till Mahashivaratri which is on next Sunday. That day it will be cut into pieces following religious rituals and distributed as prasad among the devotees.