PALAKKAD: The death of 84-year-old jumbo Guruvayur Padmanabhan has left the members of the Erandath Puthenveetil family in Ottappalam in grief.“It was in 1954 that we donated Guruvayur Padmanabhan to Sree Krishna temple in Guruvayur. My paternal grandmother Lakshmi Amma had taken a vow to donate a tusker to the temple to propitiate the deity for a favour received. I do not remember as to what the favour was,” said E P Chitresh Nair, grandson of Lakshmi Amma.
Though Lakshmi Amma had taken a vow to donate an elephant, she could not see it happen during her lifetime. Subsequently, her children, E P Achuthan Nair and E P Madhavan Nair (who were known as E P Brothers) decided that the vow of their mother needed to be fulfilled, said Chitresh, the son of Madhavan Nair.
Later, my father came to know that an elephant caught from Nilambur forest was sold to a person in Alathur. Both brothers approached that person and told him about their mother’s wish. They then purchased the elephant and kept it at their ancestral home for one week. Subsequently, the elephant was taken to Guruvayur. At that time, the Pattambi bridge was yet to be constructed. Guruvayur Padmanabhan was ferried across the river in a boat and then it was made to walk all the way to the shrine. Chitresh remembers his father saying it took one week for Padmanabhan to reach Guruvayur. It was then offered to the temple on January 18, 1954.