A Sati relic at Talgaria station. Pic courtesy/The Railway Magazine
There’s a story about how a hollow ditch at the small station of Talgaria (located in today’s Jharkhand) proved to be a problem for early railway engineers. The “divine hole”, as referred to in records, was once used as a sati site. Crowds of believers visited it even after a railway alignment, and when the station platform crossed over it, railway engineers retained the site. They covered it with metal plates so as not to hurt the religious sentiments of the people.