In India, religious rituals are taken seriously, and we have seen multiple examples on the internet that prove the same. Indians who have settled abroad also follow such rituals, and that shows how deeply rooted these things are in our traditions. In most Indian states, people celebrated Navratri, and Ayudha Puja, or Weapons Puja, is also conducted on the ninth day of Navratri to pay respect to the tools and weapons that one utilises on a daily basis. A video of a Maruti Suzuki dealer has now surfaced online, showing him performing Ayudha Puja on his supercars as part of the ritual.
The video has been shared by Sanjay Rao on his Instagram page. For those who don’t know Sanjay Rao, he is a wealthy businessman from Karnataka and the owner of Mandovi Motors. It is Karnataka’s first, oldest, and largest Maruti Suzuki dealership. Like most wealthy businessmen, Sanjay Rao is also a car enthusiast and owns multiple sports cars and supercars worth crores in his personal collection.
In the video, we see Sanjay Rao and the cars from his collection parked on the lawn of his property. The cars have been parked for Ayudha Puja, and we also see a priest sitting next to the cars and performing the rituals. Ayudha Puja is an ancient ritual, and over time, the definition of weapons has evolved.
We see cars like a Lamborghini Huracan STO, BMW M2, Maruti Jimny, Maybach GLS 600, Ford Mustang, Maruti Fronx, Lamborghini Urus, Maserati Levante, and a couple of more cars parked on the lawn. All these cars have garlands, and the priest walks up to them and performs the rituals.
The video doesn’t actually show all the cars owned by Mr Sanjay Rao. He owns an older-generation Audi TT, Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG, a Mini Cooper, and even the original Grand Vitara and a modified Maruti Swift.
The Huracan STO seen in the video is probably the most expensive car featured. It is a track-ready version of the regular Huracan that costs around Rs 5 crore, ex-showroom. It is powered by a 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 engine that generates 630 bhp and 565 Nm. It can do 0–100 kph in just 3.0 seconds.
Ayudha Pujas like these are yearly rituals, and we come across such videos from different parts of the country almost every year. It is not a ritual performed by Sanjay Rao alone. Another car enthusiast from Karnataka who is known to perform such Ayudha Pujas on his multi-crore car collection is Boopesh Reddy.
He is better known by the Instagram name Bren Garage, and he owns a huge collection of supercars. It is one of the biggest and most expensive supercar collections in the country. He owns cars like the Lamborghini Huracan STO, Lamborghini Urus, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, Lamborghini Murcielago, Mercedes-AMG G63, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, Ferrari SF90 Stradale, Ferrari 488 Pista, Ferrari 458 Speciale, Ferrari 296 GTB, Ferrari 812 Superfast, TechArt Porsche GT Street R, Porsche 911 R, Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Porsche Cayman GT4, Porsche 911 Carrera S, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Porsche 911 Turbo S, Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black, and many more. He is even building a race track for himself in Karnataka, and videos of the same are available online.