After two months of imprisonment and public humiliation, Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi walked out of prison in Tamil Nadu Tuesday, a day after his junior in the Kanchipuram mutt was dramatically arrested.
The pontiff, dressed in his trademark saffron robes, was all smiles as his devotees raised slogans when he emerged from the central jail in Vellore town in the wake of a Supreme Court directive.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ashok Singhal and Bharatiya Janaga Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj were among the hundreds who greeted him. Many others, bare-chested and sporting their holy threads, bowed before him in reverence.
The Shankaracharya, who was arrested in Andhra Pradesh Nov 11 on charges of ordering the killing of former temple official A. Sakararaman, later got into a van belonging to his Kanchipuram mutt and drove away.
Jayendra Saraswathi, who has denied the charges slapped against him, however cannot visit the Kanchipuram mutt, near here, until the murder case investigation is completed.
His followers said he likely to stay at Kalavai Mutt, about 40 km from Kanchipuram, where his predecessor, the late Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi, used to spend time.
Pollachi Mahadevan, the new manager of the Kanchipuram mutt who replaced N. Sundaresan following his arrest in the same murder case, said: "The Kalavai mutt will become the functional headquarters of the sect for now."
This follows Monday's dramatic developments when the Supreme Court ordered the release on bail of Jayendra Saraswathi while the Tamil Nadu police arrested his junior, Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswathi, also in connection with the September 2004 murder of Sankararaman, a former mutt devotee who had turned bitterly against the seer.
Sankararaman was murdered at a Kanchipuram temple by a gang, which the police alleged had acted on the orders of Jayendra Saraswathi.
With the senior Shankaracharya barred from visiting the Kanchipuram mutt, the sect has moved all the paraphernalia for religious rituals to the Kalavai mutt.
His lawyers have submitted his passport to a magistrate's court at Chengalpattu, near Chennai. This has been done in line with a directive of the Supreme Court.
They also moved an anticipatory bail application on his behalf, fearing he may be re-arrested in a third case, also of murder which took place two decades ago.
In a related development, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha has defended the arrest of the junior Shankaracharya.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she pointed out that the former had himself underlined that "the law must take its own course" in the probe into the murder of Sankararaman.
The chief minister said that she had accepted that position and now too the law should be allowed to take its own course.
She added that her government's job was to investigate the murder case without fear or favour.
The comments followed a letter from Manmohan Singh requesting her to weigh the consequences of arresting Vijayendra Saraswathi when his senior was in jail.
Jayalalitha denied allegations that Monday's arrest of Vijayendra Saraswathi when his senior was in prison would affect the daily rituals at the Kanchipuram mutt.
She said there had been several occasions when both the Shankaracharyas were out of the Kanchi mutt at the same time.
She pointed out that when the senior pontiff was arrested at Mehboobnagar Nov 11, the junior seer was with him and that he returned to the mutt only several days later.
Their absence from Kanchipuram, she said, had apparently caused no interruption to the daily prayers.