Were Ash-Abhishek already married?

New Delhi: While the late-night visit of the entire Bachchan khandan to the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi have sent the rumour mills abuzz about a possible marriage between the two, there are other media reports which say that Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai actually got married much earlier at the Meenakshi temple in Madurai.

Media rumours, in fact, have gone far beyond this to even suggest that the couple has already had their first tiff recently as a married couple over Aishwarya's onscreen lip-lock with Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom2.

The Bachchans, however, continued to downplay these rumours and deny any such alliances. "What makes you think it is impending?" Abhishek told CNN-IBN last week. "You do put masala (spice) in your food, don’t you? It's required,” Amitabh Bachchan quipped.

Abhishek blames it on the PR pundits. "They present an actor in his truest form. It is always comforting to talk to them," he says.

Amid these claims and counter-claims, the Bachchans again added fresh fuel to the wildfire of rumours when the entire clan along with Aishwarya Rai landed up in Varanasi late on Sunday night and headed straight to the Sankat Mochan temple.

As the live TV cameras and waiting journalists went wild with their speculations, Abhishek and Aishwarya emerged out of the temple early on Monday morning in garlands, creating enough excitement across the country.

But then, the final word has not come in as yet and the Bachchans are yet to confirm or deny, for that matter, if indeed the most eligible bachelor boy of Bollywood has finally been tied in the knot.

Temple sources said Abhishek's father and Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, mother Jaya, sister Shweta Nanda, uncle Ajitabh and his daughter Namrata and Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh took part in the 'Mangla Aarti' and 'Rudra Abhishek' rituals at the ancient temples here.

The family also offered prayers at Ram Janaki temple near Sankat Mochan temple and participated in an 'aarti' for Lord Hanuman there. The Bachchans and Aishwarya reached temples amid heavy posse of police personnel and a battery of mediapersons.

"They performed the rituals with great zeal. Amitabh and Jaya offered the 'jalabhishek' (offering of water to the diety). I also requested Abishek and Aishwarya to do so," Kashi Viswanath temple priest Srikanth Tripathi said.

Asked what were the reasons for Bachchans conducting such pujas, Tripathi said he was not aware of the reasons why they wanted to do this and that there was no specific ritual performed to reduce the influence of Mars on the actors.

Astrologer Chandramouli Upadhyaya, who met the Bachchans on Sunday night, said there was no discussion on the marriage and they had come here to offer prayers at the temples to overcome a problem relating to the horoscope of Aishwarya.