Ayodhya: Pejawar seer as only representative of seers from South

Anantapur: The Pejawar Udupi Mutt pontiff, Sri Viswa Prasanna Theertha, was the only member of the Sri Rama Janma Bhumi Committee from the southern states present for the Pran Pratishtha in Ayodhya on Monday.

Prasanna Theertha has been a part of the team performing traditional puja to the statue of Lord Sri Rama inside the temple during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Pejawar seer was in Ayodhya for the past few days preparing for the traditional rituals during the pratishtha of Lord Sri Ram. “He was the only saint from the south inside the main temple during this occasion,” a temple source said.

Deceased Sri Viswesha Theertha, a senior pontiff and a reformer exhorting unity of Hindus and even Muslims through his discourses, was a member of the Sri Rama Janma Bhumi Trust since its inception and involved in the legal fight and campaigns for setting up of the Ram temple.

Former Union minister Uma Bharathi was among those who took sanyas from Viswesha Theertha. He passed away in December 2019 but his legacy was continued thereafter by his junior pontiff, Sri Vishwa Prasanna Theertha Swamiji, as a member of the Rama Janma Bhumi Trust.

After the rituals on Monday, the pontiff returned to the Pejawar Mutt in Ayodhya, where crowds of devotees showered flowers on him. The Pejawar Mutt has been having a branch in Ayodhya for many years.

Paruchur Ramesh, a trustee of the Bhaktha Hanuman Temple in Anantapur, recalled that the Hanuman temple in Ayodhya was consecrated by the Pejawar senior pontiff a few years ago.