Hundreds of people in India paid their last respects to a sacred crocodile in a ritual funeral ceremony. The reptile called Babia was considered sacred, also because it is said to have eaten a purely vegetarian diet for decades and guarded a Hindu temple. The crocodile is said to have never attacked another animal or human – not even children who visited it.
Babia was found floating lifeless in the lake on Monday morning after the reptile was said to have been without food for several days. He guarded the Sri Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Temple in Kasaragod, Kerala state, known for its intricate carvings, and lived in the associated lake for almost 80 years, temple secretary Ramachandran Bhat told AFP on Monday. .
Decorated and scaly corpse
During the funeral ceremony, the scaly corpse was decorated with flowers and blessed before being carried in a sedan chair on a bed of coconut leaves through the crowd of mourners and then buried within the temple grounds. . The Kasaragod temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu is around 3,000 years old. For centuries it was protected by a single “divine” crocodile, Bhat said. “The last divine crocodile was shot by the British army in 1940 and after that Babia appeared in the lake,” Bhat said. No one can say where it comes from.
According to believers, Babia subsisted on “prasadam”, a portion of rice and sugar blessed by temple priests. But Bhat did not support this hypothesis – “because there are fish in the lake”.
