Monkeys mar rituals at Basar Saraswati temple

NIRMAL: The Maha Kumbabhishekam at the Basar Saraswati temple ended abruptly with the Sringeri Peetham uttaradhikari, Vidhu-shekhara Bharati Swamy, not performing the abhishekam to the rajagopuram as he did not find kalashams on Thursday. The issue came to light on Friday.

The seer had performed maha kumbhabhishekam to goddess Saraswati but found that the temple priests had failed to instal new kalashams on the rajagopuram and instead kept old ones. After noticing the old kalashams, Bharati Swamy stopped the ritual s and expressed his displeasure over the poor arrangements.

However, the temple head priest, Sanjiv Maharaj, said that monkeys had removed the kalashams placed on the rajagopuram and they had fallen on the ground. The mutt head told the temple priests that he would return at a later date to perform the rituals and asked them to fix new kalashams on the rajagopuram by that time.