For PM’s ritual, lotuses to come from Kerala’s Muslim farmers

MALAPPURAM: In a symbolic reminder of Kerala’s celebrated communal harmony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday perform the “thulabharam” ritual — where a devotee is weighed in a chosen offering, like grain or flowers — at Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple using lotuses sourced from the farms of Muslim families in Thirunnavaya.
K B Mohandas, chairman of Guruvayur Devaswom Board, said 112 kg of lotuses have been procured for the PM’s ritual. Due to certain premonsoon conditions in the Malappuram farms, lotuses have also been sourced from Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu.
For more than 100 years, a group of Muslim families in Thirunnavaya village cultivate and supply lotus flowers to be used as offerings to deities at over 100 temples across the state. Lotuses are cultivated in the backwaters. The farmers, most of them Muslim, supply about 20,000 lotuses daily to temples, including Guruvayur, Kodungalloor Bhagavathy temple, Paramekkavu Bhagavathi temple, Thriprayar Sri Rama temple and Parshinikkaadavu Muthappan temple.