Devotees built temple for a parrot, which breathed its last at the feet of Lord Rama at a temple in the port city of Visakhapatnam. The temple, built beside a Ram Mandir, was opened Monday, the auspicious Hanuman Jayanti day amid chanting of Vedic hymns by priests. Thousands of devotees gathered at the inaugural of the India’s first parrot temple.

According to the devotees, the parrot circumambulated around the Rama idol in the temple for whole day, without accepting any food offered by the devotees on Sri Ram Navami festival in March this year at the Thatichetlapalem temple in Visakhapatnam.

That evening, it died in front of the feet of the idol. While making rounds, it was perched over Sita’s idol. Some even claimed that it was listening to the chanting of ‘Mantras’ by the priests at the Ram Kalyan.

Though rationalists wrote it off as an accident, many believed it to be an omen of greater things to come. The parrot was buried within the premises of the temple complex.

The devotees saw the parrot equal to Hanuman, the disciple of Rama and decided to build a temple for it too beside the temple.

They got two parrots made of stones and built a roof on four pillars, with marble flooring and installed the “new deity”.

ATtrust was also formed for the building of the temple and its maintenance. Trust chairman Subhramanya Raju said permanent arrangements for daily pujas for the parrot had been made.

A couple of years ago, a doctor built a mosquito temple in Prakasam district, but, for negative publicity. He wanted to tell the locals the ill-effects of “worshipping” a mosquito by allowing it to stay amid them in unclean surroundings.