Wickramasinghe visits Guruvayur

He visited the sanctum sanctorum and subsidiary shrines dedicated to Lord Ayyappa and Goddess Bhagavathy.

April 18, 2015 03:59 pm | Updated April 02, 2016 04:57 pm IST - Guruvayur

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe visited the Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple on Saturday.

His wife Maitree Wickramasinghe and Sri Lankan Minister for Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs D. M. Swaminathan accompanied him.

The Prime Minister and his team arrived at the Sreevalsam Guest House of the Guruvayur Devaswom around 11-15 a.m. He changed into a traditional ‘Veshti’ and ‘Mundu’, and proceeded to the temple.

Guruvayur Devaswom chairman T. V. Chandramohan welcomed him with a bouquet at the East Nada.

He visited the sanctum sanctorum (which houses the main shrine or Moolavigrama, a Swarna Thidambu or idol made of gold and Panchaloha Thidambu or idol made of Panchaloha), and subsidiary shrines dedicated to Lord Ayyappa and Goddess Bhagavathy.

He offered ‘thulabharam’ (a ceremony in which an offering worth one’s weight is submitted to the deity) with sandalwood Melshanti (chief priest) Moorkkannur Sreehari Namboodiri offered ‘prasadam’ to Mr. Wickramasinghe and his wife.

Later, Mr. Chandramohan presented a mural painting and a figurine of Lord Krishna to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister. The Prime Minister also visited the Mammiyur temple in Guruvayur.

He told reporters he was neither pro-India nor pro-China and that his primary commitment was to protecting the interests of Sri Lanka. He said that a team of experts from Sri Lanka would soon visit Punnathurkotta, the Guruvayur Devaswom’s elephant sanctuary. He called for better ties between India and Sri Lanka.

The Prime Minister left the temple town around 12.30 p.m. Security in and around the temple was tightened in connection with his visit. Around 1,000 police personnel were deployed in the temple town.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.