Breaking Stereotypes, Three Daughters Perform Father’s Last Rites in Odisha’s Malkangiri

Malkangiri: Three sisters broke the barriers of the deeply embedded tradition that allows only sons to cremate their father. Breaking the stereotype, they not only shouldered the bier of their father to the cremation ground but also performed his last rites.

Sukant Kumar Pattnaik, a resident of 119-Colony in the district headquarters town died of a heart attack in the wee hours of Tuesday and subsequently died on Wednesday. He used to run a cycle repair shop. 

Now the big question was, in the absence of a son, who would peform his last rites? Neighbours and relatives who had come to pay their last respects started speaking in hushed tones. What they saw soon after left them dumbfounded, for Pattnaik’s three daughters, Sasmita, Smita and Sangeeta decided to perform the last rites of their father and came forward to shoulder the bier to the cremation ground. It definitely was an unusual sight for the residents.

On reaching the cremation ground, the youngest daughter Sangeeta, performed the rituals and lit the funeral pyre.