Priest of Hampi’s famous Badavilinga temple Krishna Bhat no more

Bellary: Krishna Bhat (87), the priest of Hampi’s famous Badavilinga temple, died at his house on Sunday due to age-related illness.

Bhat is originally from Kasaravalli of Tirthahalli taluk in the Shivamogga district.

In 1979 he came to Hampi and settled there. Since then, he had been performing daily poojas at the Badavilinga temple.

He stopped performing poojas in 2020 due to his old age and his son has been doing them instead.

The 3-metre high monolithic Shivalinga at the temple in Hampi was built during the Vijayanagara Empire period.

A large number of tourists visit Hampi to see the temple and the poojas performed by Bhat.