P Jayarajan’s visit to Kodungallur temple sparks row

Thrissur: The visit of CPM leader P Jayarajan to the Kodungallur Sree Kurumba Devi Temple on Monday evening triggered a controversy with some sections suggesting that he has become a devotee.However, Jayarajan dismissed the reports and said he had visited the temple not as a devotee but to collect some data for the book he is authoring. In a social media post, he said he was writing a book titled ‘Sanathanikalude Hindutva Vazhikal'. "In that book, one chapter is devoted to the places of worship where non-Brahmanical rituals and practices are still surviving. Kodungallur temple is one such place of worship where non-Brahmanical rituals and practices are still followed," Jayarajan said in the post. "I was going to Kochi to attend a judiciary related work the other day, and had a stopover at Kodungallur for lunch, accidentally. Then I decided to visit the temple, as I had not got a direct exposure of it till then, though I had read about it," Jayarajan added. He said he had visited several other popular and less known places of worship in different parts of the country, including the Ajmeer Durgha and the Golden Temple in Amritsar. "I have visited some Christian places of worship also. I have only sympathies to those who think that I have become a devotee just because I visited the Kodungallur temple," Jayarajan said.