India
oi-Briti Roy Barman
Thiruvananthapuram, October 22: Babiya, the giant crocodile, who lives in the temple pond known as the temple guard for years, paid a surprise visit to the Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple premises in Kasaragod, north Kerala, on Tuesday.
“The crocodile spent some time there and returned after the high priest Chandraprakash Nambisan asked it to go to its permanent habitat, the temple pool,” said the Chandrasekharan temple official.
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The divine crocodile is believed to be a vegetarian, eating only temple prasad, which is made of rice and brown sugar and does not harm anyone, including the fish in the lake.
The crocodile is said to have been living in the Ananthapura Lake Temple for 73 years and is guarding the temple. In 1945, a British soldier shot a crocodile that lived in the village pond. The soldier died instantly from a snake bite and Babiya appeared here the next day. But no one has any idea how the crocodile got to the temple pond and who named it.
The priests said that this was Babiya’s first entrance to the temple.
Babiya feeds on prasad from the temple which is offered after the deity worship. She comes out of the pond when the priest calls him.
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Photos of Babiya inside the temple premises are widely circulating on social media.
The netizen said that Babiya entered the temple to meet Lord Vishnu.
The temple is located in a small town called Ananthapura and many devotees after praying in the temple offer prayers also before the lake. The temple is known as the moolasthanm (original source) of the Sree Padmanabhaswami temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
Devotees believe that Babiya is a “messenger” of Lord Padmanabha, Lord Vishnu.
