Meet Babiya, The Vegetarian Crocodile Who Eats Only Rice And Jaggery Apart From Guarding A Temple

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Indian Temples have a huge appreciation along with admiration all across the world. Their architect and the mysterious stories that they have got is always an interesting part of most of the temples across India. Kerala is called ‘God’s Own country’ for a reason. The natural beauty along with the hill stations that it has got is one awesome place to be anytime.

Apart from this natural beauty that throngs the beautiful state, there are a few mysterious stories too. Ananthapura Temple, which is situated 40 km away from Mangalore, is surrounded by a rectangular lake. This makes the Ananthapura temple the only lake temple of Kerala. This temple is considered as the original abode of Lord Anantha Padmanabha. But, here we are not talking about the Temple or the Lord Anantha Padmanabha, there is a mysterious crocodile which resides in the Temple lake. It is named ‘Babiya’. He is believed to be the guardian of this temple.

Temple

So, one might wonder what’s so fascinating about this crocodile.

Well, the first thing about him is that he is a pure vegetarian. He only eats prasadam made of rice and jaggery. It is fed to him by the worshiper of the temple after the noon pooja. Folk simply calls his name and Babiya comes out of the cave quietly and eats the food offered to him. He doesn’t harm anyone, not even the fish in the lake. Now isn’t this amazing!!

The Mystery about BABIYA

There are many stories that can be heard about Babiya. Some believe that Babiya is 150 years old while others say that a new crocodile appears after one dies. There are many other crocodiles in the lake, but Babiya guards the entrance and shrine of the temple.

babiya

While there are many mysteries about this Temple and the crocodile, but the fascinating one is this crocodile has not till date killed or is believed to have not killed any other living being for its food.

It will always remain as a mystery and guess sometimes, it is because of these mysteries, we are attracted towards such places.