Amidst Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Tiruchirappalli, an elephant on the premises grabbed netizen's attention after it played mouth organ in front of the PM.
A 24-second clip of Modi's meet-up with the temple's elephant on January 20 gained more than 148,000 views on social media X.
The clip showed Modi, dressed in traditional attire, passing the instrument to the elephant, which then curls its trunk and starts playing it.
Modi's visit to Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is part of his 11-day pilgrimmage across key temples which has connection with Ramayana, ahead of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony on January 22. In the past two weeks, PM Modi has traversed through key temples from Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh and Kerala to Tamil Nadu.
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is one of the ancient temples dedicated to Lord Ranganatha, a form of Lord Vishnu.
It is also known as Srirangam Temple, and it houses the deity of Nam Perumal or Azahagiya Manavaalan, meaning “our god” or “beautiful groom” in Tamil. The temple is said to have been built during the Vijayanagara period (1336-1565).
It is believed that the idol was originally worshipped by Lord Ram and his ancestors, and it was given to them by Lord Brahma.
After Srirangam, the Prime Minister will travel to Rameswaram and perform darshan and pooja at the Sri Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy Temple.