Kollam (Ker) | Seeking to set an example of equality among living beings, a message of Onam festival, a temple in Kerala served sumptuous traditional feast to monkeys on its premises during the occasion.

The feast with all traditional vegetarian delicacies, 'pappad', 'payasam' (dessert), pickle and rice, was served on plantain leaves for a troop of monkeys at the Sree Dharma Sastha Temple at Sasthamkota here on Tuesday, the auspicious Thiruonam day.

The animals waited patiently till the last delicacy of the feast was served on the plantain leaves at the 'vanara bhojana sala' (a dedicated area for monkey feast). Then they descended one by one from treetops, looked around curiously and licked their fingers after dipping them in each dish.

According to a temple official, the practice of serving 'onasadya' (feast) to the monkeys, living on the premises of the shrine, dated back to the era of Ramayana.

"This is nothing new. We have been doing it for decades. Every day these monkeys are fed at the temple. A delicious 'sadya' will be served on the Onam day," he told PTI.

People are considering the ritual as auspicious and so many persons would sponsor the sadya, he noted.

"This time, we have got two-to-three such sponsors. So, there will be more feasts during this Onam," he added.

It is believed by devotees that the 'vanara sena', the army of monkeys, had reached the shrine when they were on the way to Sri Lanka for Ram-Ravana war.

A large number of people, even from far off places, reached the temple to get a glimpse of the "vanarasadya", the feast for monkeys.