Udupi Paryaya to be held without fanfare

Udupi: The paryaya mahotsava’, marking the biennial transfer of the right to worship the Lord and manage the Udupi Sri Krishna temple to a new seer of the Ashta mutts’, will be held Tuesday morning.

The event will be celebrated without fanfare in the context of the sudden surge in the spread of Covid-19.

The new paryaya’ seer Swami Vidyasagar Teertha of Krishnapur mutt will ascend the Sarvajna Peetha’ at 5.55 am on Tuesday. He is to hold the seat for the fourth time on a rotational basis from among the ‘ashta (eight) mutts’ of Udupi.

Admar mutt junior seer Ishapriya Teertha will hand over charge of the Udupi Sri Krishna temple and mutt to the Krishnapur seer for the next two years, after a series of religious rituals beginning at 2.15 am Tuesday.

The grand paryaya darbar’ will be held at Rajangana hall at 6.45 am in the presence of the seers of all the eight mutts of Udupi.

K Raghupati Bhat, Udupi MLA and president of the paryayotsava’ samiti on Monday held a meeting with district administration officials regarding the conduct of the paryaya festival in a simple manner.

It was decided to cancel all the festivities arranged for the paryaya’ celebrations and to focus on the traditional events this year. Bhat urged the devotees to watch the paryaya mahotsav’ live on television and not to throng the temple town.

Udupi deputy commissioner M Kurma Rao, zilla panchayat CEO Y Naveen Bhat and district superintendent of police Vishnuvardhan were among those present at the meeting.