An old ‘divine’ and ‘vegetarian’ crocodile who lived in a lake near a Hindu temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala was found dead on Monday, given a religious funeral, mourned by hundreds of people before being buried. The venerable animal, named Babia, was found dead floating on the surface of the lake early Monday.
Hundreds of devotees attended the funeral of Babia, considered the guardian of the Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple in Kasaragod for nearly 80 years, the temple’s secretary, Ramachandran Bhat, told AFP.
The temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, is 3,000 years old, Ramachandran Bhat said, saying an earlier “divine” crocodile had lived alone in the temple’s lake for several centuries.
“The last divine crocodile was killed by the British Army in 1940 and then Babia appeared in the lake,” the temple secretary continued.
According to him, temple officials and worshipers expected another crocodile to appear at any moment.
I would never have attacked an animal.
“We don’t know where it came from, but the lake is connected to underground caves,” Ramachandran Bhat said.
Babia would never have attacked any animal or any human being, not even bitten one of the children who came to touch him to bring them luck.
He is believed by many to be “vegetarian”, being fed “Prasadam”, an offering made of rice and palm sugar, blessed by the temple priests. In this regard, the secretary of the temple said that he was skeptical knowing that “there are fish in the lake”.
The body of the sacred animal was adorned with flowers and blessed before being carried on a litter of coconut leaves, through the weeping crowd, and then buried on the temple grounds. India’s Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shobha Karandlaje paid tribute on Twitter to the “crocodile of God”.
“The divine crocodile lived in the temple lake for more than 70 years eating Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy’s Prasadam rice and sugar and guarding the temple,” he clarified in his tweet.
Source: BFM TV
