Saturday, January 14 2006 15:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Udupi: The religious extravaganza, which began at the Sri Krishna Temple here on January 7, marking the end of the two-year 'Paryaya' term of Sri Vishwapriya Thirtha Swamiji of Admar mutt, will come to a close on Jan 17 with the handing over of temple charge to Sri Vidyasagar Thirtha Swamiji of Krishnapura Mutt.

The Admar seer during his term was involved in several social schemes for the uplift of the rural masses.

However, despite widespread appreciation of his contribution, the seer was dragged into a controversy when he took up a project of replacing the old Gopuram of the temple with a new one.

The issue of 'demolition' of the Gopuram snowballed into statewide protests by Kuruba community demanding the seer's arrest and takeover of the temple administration by the Government. The conflict was later defused with the construction of a Gopuram in place of the old one.

The outgoing pontiff would handover the temple charge to the seer of Krishnapura mutt in the wee hours of Jan 18.