Zoo officials here are not only christening the lion cubs after a study of their horoscope, but will now invite people to bring them close to wildlife through auctioning of the entire christening ritual for the three offspring, by next month.

It was on August 17, 2004 that the zoo officials first decided to prepare the horoscope of one of the two lion cubs, which was not keeping well. The horoscope revealed that the three months will be crucial for the lioness cub but she will remain healthy throughout her life.

City-based animal lover Nalini Upadhyay, who worked with the zoo officials and priest Rajubhai to bring out the horoscope, said: “The lioness Rajwanti gave birth to four cubs and all of them died. It was sad for all of us because Rajkot zoo saw cubs after 12 long years. Later she gave birth to three cubs, one of them died immediately while two survived (Mauj and Masti).”

She added: “We were worried about their health. Mauj did not keep well for three months together.

At that time we decided to take the help of jyotish shashtra and got in touch with Rajubhai who studied the planets from their birth timings and dates and eventually came out with their horoscopes.”

The tradition of christening the cubs has continued ever since and now the zoo officials are getting ready for yet another ceremony for the three cubs of Masti, which were born on March 17.

Interestingly, the baptism of the three cubs will not be an indoor affair. The zoo officials have come out with a unique concept of involving people, in the entire ritual.

During the baptism, the zoo officials will allow citizens to give their favourite name from the sun sign as per their horoscope, by paying donations. Whoever pays the highest amount as donation will have the honour to christen the cubs. The three cubs will be given names from the sun sign Scorpio that is Na and Ya.

Rajkot Zoo curator R G Maradia said most of what was written in Mauj’s horoscope has turned out to be true. “The tradition of naming the cubs as per their sun signs started under unusual circumstances, but we want to carry on with the ritual. We also want people to come close to nature and environment. Some interested people have already approached us to give their favourite names to the cubs, but we have decided to keep the ceremony after a month.”

Rajnikant Anadkat, popularly known as Rajubhai jyotish, is now used to prepare the horoscopes of lions. “We have named Krish and Crazy (offspring of Mauj), and Heer, Het and Helly (offspring of Masti), according to their sun signs. The concept is simple as all lives are the same. However, the age of lions is less than that of humans, so I had to do calculations accordingly. The main question about lion cubs is their lifeline, which becomes clear after reading the planetary positions,” he said.