Thousands of people flocked to temples across India on Monday following reports that idols of Hindu gods were drinking milk given by devotees as sacred offerings.

Teenagers, adults and the aged stood in long lines with garlands and bowls of milk to feed the idols of Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna and the elephant-headed Lord Ganesha.

Hundreds chanted hymns in the northern city of Lucknow and the eastern city of Kolkata andwent into hystericswhen the milk held against the idols disappeared.

"It is amazing, Lord Ganesha drank milk from my hands. Now he will answer all my prayers," said Surama Dasgupta, a middle-aged woman in Kolkata.

The frenzy began late on Sunday in some northern cities and soon spread across the country, including the capital New Delhi, even as rationalists and non-believers called it mass hysteria.

A similar mania gripped the country in 1995 when thousands of Hindus fed milk in spoons to marble idols of Lord Ganesha.

That rumour spread across the globe and there were reports of Hindu deities drinking milk in London, New York and Italy.

"It is very natural for any stone idol to absorb any liquid and the older the stone the more it absorbs," M.P. Singh, a geology professor at Lucknow University, said.

The "milk miracle" came days after thousands of people in the financial hub of Mumbai drank water from a murky Arabian Sea creek as they thought it had miraculously turned sweet and could cure illnesses.

But police stepped in and stopped people after Mumbai's civic officials said the water could have temporarily lost itssalinitydue to pollution and inflow offreshwaterfrom a nearby source.

周一，数千名印度民众涌向印度各大小寺庙，因为之前有消息称寺庙里的神像喝下了信徒们所供奉的牛奶。

青少年、成年人以及老年人手持花环、端着牛奶，排着长队给湿婆神、克利须那神和加内什象鼻神的神像喂奶。

喂给神像的牛奶消失之后，印度北部城市勒克瑙和东部城市加尔各答的数百名群众唱起圣歌，陷入疯狂状态。

加尔各答一位名叫苏拉玛·达斯古普特的中年妇女说：“太神奇了，加内什神像喝了我手中的牛奶。所以，现在他一定会让我所有的祈求都实现。”

上周日晚些时候这股狂热在印度北部的一些城市开始，之后迅速席卷印度全国，其中包括首都新德里，其势头正如唯理论者和非信徒所形容的"大癫狂"。

1995年，印度也曾出现过一场类似的狂潮。当时，数千名印度人纷纷拿着勺子给加内什神大理石像喂奶。

这个传闻当时传遍全世界，在伦敦、纽约和意大利都出现了有关印度神像会喝牛奶的报道。

勒克瑙大学的地质学教授辛格议员说："其实，石头神像吸收液体是个很自然的现象，而且，石头的年龄越长，吸收的液体会越多。"

在“神像喝奶奇迹”发生数天之前，印度金融中心孟买有成千上万人去喝阿拉伯海的一条支流里的浑水，他们认为这条支流的水奇迹般地变甜了，喝了可以治病。

之后，警方插手此事，阻止人们的这一举动。因为孟买的市政官员解释，是污染和附近水域淡水的注入导致海水的盐分可能暂时流失。

Vocabulary:

go into hysterics : 陷入疯狂状态

salinity : 盐分；盐度

freshwater : 淡水