Something very unusual has happened in Kerala’s famous temple at Kasargod. Pictures started doing the rounds on October 20 showed Subrahmanya Bhat, who is the main priest, standing in front of a massive crocodile inside the temple premises.
Coming to the context, a gigantic crocodile was found inside the premises of Sri Ananthapura Temple. This reptile (named Babiya) is a vegetarian. It has been living in the temple’s pond for 70 years. According to the priest, this was Babiya’s first entry in the temple and it left the premises after a ‘request’.
It came to the temple premises on 20th October evening and spent some time there and went back after the chief priest Chandraprakash Nambisan asked it to go to its permanent habitat. Currently, no one in the temple knows when and how Babiya came to the temple pond and who named it. It has shown no wild behavior. It does not need high maintenance and feeds on temple prasad which is offered after the worship of the Deity.
At times the priest puts rice balls right into its mouth. He has a unique friendship with Babiya. The temple pond has enough fish and it is believed that Babiya never attacks or consumes them. It is a fully vegetarian crocodile keeping with the tradition of the ancient temple.
Bhat said it wasn’t unusual for ‘Babiya’ to wander around the temple premises at night after the last rituals of the day had been completed. He said, “It is also said that the reptile sleeps on the platform in front of the Sreekovil, the sanctum sanctorum, of the temple and goes back into the pond as and when the temple opens at dawn, for the rituals.”
On the other hand, the Internet reacted to the pictures in a very positive way,
Bhat further said that Babiya mainly feeds on offerings made to the deity and has not exhibited any dangerous behavior in the past. “There have been several instances where persists encountering the crocodile inside the premises, but they have always offered prayers and holy water and that has been it. The crocodile has always peacefully gone back to the pond,” he added.