A mystery man has made a thanksgiving offering in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a non-Brahmin temple in a Kerala village where many Muslims too make offerings.

The family running the Sree Kumully Temple said it did not know who had paid for the rituals nor what the reason for the thanksgiving was.

The visitor was one of many who had queued at the temple’s vazhipadu counter (where money is paid for offerings) on Monday, the second day of the three-day annual festival at the shrine, located in Orkateri village, Vadakara, Kozhikode.

The man paid Rs 2,000 for the ritual, called Chamundi Vellattam — a thanksgiving offering to a deity called Chamundi or Vishnumoorthi.

“We don’t keep tabs on who comes and pays for a vazhipadu (offering). The person manning the counter said a man paid Rs 2,000 for the ritual, to be carried out in the name of the Prime Minister,” K. Pradeepan, a member of the family that runs the temple, told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

Pradeepan had got to know about the offering after the mystery man had left.

A copy of the receipt, written out in Malayalam, shows the offering was made in the name of “Sri Narendra Damodardas Modi, Bharata Pradhana Mantri”.

The temple went ahead and conducted the thanksgiving ritual in Modi’s name.

Pradeepan wondered whether the Prime Minister knew about the temple at all, let alone about the offering.

“The visitor who made the offering is most likely a local man since others would not know about the rituals conducted here,” he said.

The main deity at the temple is Kuttichathan, a mischievous child demon worshipped widely in Kerala, but it has other deities too.

India’s first 3D movie, My Dear Kuttichathan (1984), is loosely based on this goblin who has a love-hate relationship with humans.

The temple follows the traditional worship pattern of north Kerala — Theyyam, one of the oldest forms of religious folk art in the state. Theyyam predates Kathakali, another form of folk art from the state, and is widely practised in north Kerala districts such as Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod.

“The Theyyam performance at our temple is very popular and attracts Hindus and Muslims in large numbers. Many Muslims pay for offerings to the deity,” said Pradeepan.

The temple, one of the thousands of family-run temples in Kerala, does not follow Vedic rituals and has no Brahmin priests.

“Our family members conduct all the rituals during the three-day festival. On other days we (the family) just light the temple lamp,” Pradeepan said.

Unlike the conventional temples run by Brahmin priests, these family shrines have their own native deities.

“Chamundi, Gulikan, Bhairavan and Guru Karnavar are some of the Theyyam (gods) we have in this temple,” Pradeepan said.

Modi is no stranger to thanksgiving rituals. In June 2019, after his election victory, he had visited the Sree Krishna Temple in Guruvayur and offered thulabharam — in which the devotee is weighed on a large balance against whatever is the offering. Modi had offered lotus flowers.

In January last year, the Prime Minister had visited the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram and spent 20 minutes praying and looking around the premises.