Chennai, March 28: It was not exactly a homecoming when Jayendra Saraswati today visited the Kanchi Shankara Mutt for the first time since his arrest in the Shankar Raman murder case. But for the devotees it was a pleasant surprise.

The Kanchi pontiff, who stepped into the mutt after four months, spent nearly an hour there. He performed a puja before the samadhi of the late Chandrasekharendra Saraswati and meditated, mutt sources said.

The Supreme Court, while granting the seer bail in January, had asked him not to visit the Kanchi Mutt till a chargesheet was filed in the case. As the special investigation team has already filed the chargesheet before the first judicial magistrate, Kancheepuram, the seer is no longer constrained by such conditions.

Earlier in the day, the acharya visited the Kamakshi Amman Temple near the mutt, for the first time in four months, and performed abishegams at the shrines dedicated to Adi Shankara and goddess Saraswati. He also offered prayers at the Kousikeswarar temple.

Last evening, too, the seer was out on a visit. He went to the Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Viswa Maha Vidyalaya at Enathur, a deemed university started by the Kanchi mutt. The occasion was the university convocation, but he reached there only after the formal presentation of degrees.

The seer?s recent activities indicate that he is coming out of his shell and beginning to attend routine functions.

Last week he had declared that he would stay put at Kalavai until the murder case was over.