IANS

Priests in the Hindu holy town of Pushkar Saturday organised prayers, a mocking gesture to seek wisdom for Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai, after one of her bodyguards accompanying her entered a famous temple here allegedly in an inebriated condition.

Aishwarya's visit to the town Thursday to pray at the Brahma temple had priests fighting among themselves to decide who would offer puja for her. However, when the security personnel tried to quieten them, some priests alleged one of the guards was drunk.

"We organised a two-hour Shanti Paath and Sadbudhi Yagna near the Pushkar Sarovar today so that Aishwarya gets the wisdom to offer an apology for the wrongdoings of her personal guards," S.N. Garg, secretary of the Teerth Purohit Sangh Trust, a Pushkar priests' organisation, told IANS on telephone.

He said that over 150 people attended the prayers.

"We had requested Aishwarya to apologise as one of three bodyguards who had accompanied her to the temple was drunk," he said, adding that she had not tendered an apology so far.

The guard desecrated the temple by entering it in a drunken condition, Garg added.

Aishwarya, accompanied by her mother, had offered prayers at the Brahma temple on Thursday.

Pushkar, 140 km from state capital Jaipur, is the country's only temple dedicated to Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. It was built in the 14th century.

The town also has a lake that is considered holy by the Hindus.

Denying the allegation, Aishwarya has said in a statement that the bodyguard "was not drunk and he was only trying to keep fans and reporters away from me."