Photo: Babiya was given a ceremonial burial with all the last rites of a Hindu ‘sannyasi’. (PTI)
Indian Express: In a rare gesture, a Kerala temple accorded “bhu samadhi” to a crocodile, named Babiya, that died in the shrine’s pond on Sunday night and a post-mortem cited the death due to old age. Since the crocodile has been part of the lore of Sree Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Temple at Kumbla in Kasaragod district, Babiya was given a ceremonial burial with all prayers envisaged for the last rites of a Hindu ‘sannyasi’. Before the burial, Babiya’s body was kept in a mobile freezer for several hours to enable the devotees to pay homage to the ‘divine soul’.
Earlier, Babiya had hit the headlines after devotees claimed that it was a vegetarian crocodile and eventually attained a divine status after it was seen consuming the offerings at the temple (rice and jaggery). The crocodile was never known to have turned violent or attacked a devotee. It lived in the temple pond along with fish. Two years back, it was spotted on the steps of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. Read more at source.
