Patna, Jan 28 : A soothsayer's prediction led a father in a Bihar village to marry off his two daughters to a man at a village temple.

The groom, Sailendra Kumar alias Pintu, married two sisters - Aarti Kumari and Puja Kumari - at a Shiva temple in Phulwarisharif near Patna, on Saturday.

Sailendra, in his early 30s, walked around the holy fire seven times with both his brides simultaneously as priests chanted from the scriptures. He also applied vermilion on their foreheads, a Hindu mark of marriage.

The groom then signed an official document of the temple, declaring that he married the two sisters and would take care of them.

The marriage document reads: Sailendra, resident of Baraipur village under Punpun police station, has married Aarti and Puja, daughters of Rajendra Singh of Ghorhua village under Masaurih police station in Patna district.

"A priest-cum-astrologer had predicted that my elder daughter Aarti would never become a mother. We told Sailendra that if Aarti failed to conceive, then he could marry the younger one, Puja. He offered to marry both the girls at the same time," said Manju Devi, mother of the girls.

"We accepted Sailendra's offer because we were having a tough time arranging a groom for Aarti," Manju added.

Manju, who has two other daughters, said after the news about the astrologer's prediction spread, no groom's family was ready to accept the elder girl. "But Sailendra agreed to the marriage despite knowing about it," she said.

Reacting to the incident, Shruti Singh, a lawyer of Patna High Court and a woman activist, said: "It violates the law of the land and promotes polygamy."

Another legal expert, Uma Shankar, said the state women's commission should take up the matter as a Hindu man cannot marry two women simultaneously.