A day to go for the Ram Temple “Pran Pratishtha (consecration)” ceremony in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues his visit to historical temples in Tamil Nadu that have a connection with Lord Ram.

On Sunday, the PM will be in Dhanushkodi, offering prayers at the Sri Kothandaramar Swami Temple. The temple is believed to be the place where the younger brother of Ravan, Vibhishan, had come to meet Lord Ram and join his army because he was against Ravan’s abduction of Sita.

This visit comes a day after PM Modi offered prayers at the Srirangam temple in Tiruchirappalli, where he heard a local Ramayana recitation, and the Ramanathaswamy shrine in the Ramanathapuram district. While the former is a Vaishnavite temple, the latter is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

The PM, who is currently undertaking special rituals for 11 days in the run-up to the consecration, took a dip in the Agni theertha within the Ramanathaswamy temple complex.

The Srirangam temple has a religious and Tamil literary link to the Ramayana, with the idol of Sri Ranganathaswamy there, an avatar of Vishnu, believed to have been worshipped by Lord Ram and his ancestors.

The Ramanathaswamy temple also has a Ramayana connection, with the Shiva linga here believed to be installed by Lord Ram.

PM Modi’s rounds to the temples linked to Lord Ram have been taking place over the past several days.

On Wednesday, the PM offered prayers at Lord Krishna Temple in the Guruvayur town in Kerala. He then went to the Triprayar Sree Ramaswamy Temple, situated on the bank of the Karuvannur river, also known as Theevra river, in Thrissur.

A day earlier, the PM visited the Veerabhadra temple in the Lepakshi town of Sri Satyasai district of Andhra Pradesh. Lepakshi is the place where the mythical vulture Jatayu is said to have fallen when he was wounded by Ravan in his efforts to stop the abduction of Sita.

Modi hummed bhajans for Ram, listened to special hymns on Ram in Telugu, and also witnessed a puppet show on the Ramayana at the Lepakshi temple.

On January 12, the PM visited the Kalaram Mandir on the banks of the Godavari in the Panchavati area of the city. Apart from one of the places that Ram visited during his exile, Panchavati is believed to have been the site of many events described in the Ramayana, including the abduction of Sita.

The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will re-enter Assam on Sunday.

The Yatra was on its third day of passing through Assam on Saturday. By afternoon, through the Lakhimpur district, the yatra entered Arunachal Pradesh. After a night at a village near Itanagar and an address in the morning, the yatra will again move to Assam where it will continue till January 25.

While interacting with the residents of Doimukh as he entered Arunachal, Gandhi alleged that the BJP was instigating “people to fight among themselves in the name of religion and language”.

“We gave statehood to Arunachal Pradesh and our party is always ready to raise the issues of the poor and to work for the betterment of the youth, women and weaker sections of the society,” Gandhi said.

The Congress on Saturday alleged that BJP workers tore its posters and banners and vandalised vehicles in Lakhimpur. The party has released a 54-second video purportedly showing a street in a town at night. The people can be heard shouting “Jai Shri Ram” while a man wielding a stick is seen tearing posters attached to pillars. The clip further shows another man pulling down a hoarding bearing the photograph of Gandhi and two other Congress leaders.

The Assam Police, however, has junked the claims of attack on the Congress yatra.

This comes amidst Gandhi’s statements hitting out at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Meanwhile, the Congress claimed that its yatra has been denied permission to pass through Guwahati, where it is scheduled to reach on January 23, though the police maintained that the request was “under consideration”.

“We had applied for permission for a roadshow and padayatra through a definite route in Guwahati. But it has been refused,” Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Debabrata Saikia said. He also said the application, seeking permission for the march, was submitted to the police on January 12 and again on January 19, with a follow-up email sent on Saturday.

Newly-appointed Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) chief Y S Sharmila, the sister of Chief Minister and YSRCP supremo Jagan Mohan Reddy, will take charge of her new role on January 21 at a meeting scheduled to be held at 11 am at the Andhra Ratna Bhavan in Vijayawada.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s Andhra in-charge Manickam Tagore and AICC secretaries CD Meyyappan and Christopher Tilak would be present on the occasion.

Sharmila’s joining the Congress will now officially kickstart the brother-sister duo’s face-off in the state in the run-up to the simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, which are just a few months away.

— With PTI inputs