Srikalahasti temple gets 146-cr revenue, pips Srisailam shrine

Tirupati: Srikalahasteeswara Swamy is getting richer with each passing year and he is competing with Sri Bramaramba Mallikarjuna Swamy of Srisailam.

With a steady increase in annual revenue that touched Rs 146.16 crore in 2017-18, Srikalahasti Devasthanam has slowly entered the category of becoming financially sound.

The temple also known as ‘Dakshina Kasi’ has been witnessing an increase in devotees and stands ahead of Srisailam temple which earned around Rs 120 crore during 2017-18. Now it enjoys the status of highest revenue earning temple among other temples barring the Tirumala Temple which has a budget of over Rs 3000 crore.

With the sale of 14,000 kg of silver, Kalahasti temple revenue has gone up. Otherwise, it comes next to Srisailam temple in earning revenue. Significantly, silver stocks piled up at Srikalahasti temple. The temple got all this silver through Rahu-Kethu poojas which are famous in Srikalahasti.

Every devotee who purchases a Rahu-Kethu puja ticket will be given puja material and two silver ‘Naga Padigas’ considered to be Rahu and Kethu. After puja, they should not take them home but drop them in the temple hundi only.

Temple authorities used to store the Naga Padigas they get through hundi in strong room without recycling them. The process continued till 2004 in which authorities have decided to recycle the silver which they collect from Hundi and earmarked 2,300 kg of silver for the purpose. They have purchased new silver in 2004 and rotating the same since then.

The old silver to the tune of 14,000 kilos was stored for years together in the strong room and no one ventured to auction it. After the present executive officer D Bhramaramba took over, she put efforts to sell the unused silver through auction so that the temple can earn income from it.

Bhramaramba told The Hans India that she was happy as the silver got good rate in the auction as it was refined. With that money she got approvals to buy 153 kg of gold biscuits and invested it as Gold Bonds in banks.

“Banks will return the gold after five years or it can be renewed for another five years. But they will not give cash,” she explained. With these gold bonds temple will get about Rs 2 crore worth of gold per annum. She added that there was another 2,500 kg of silver which has to be put for auction and through it another 25 to 26 kg of gold will come.

“After I came here I have deposited 173 kg of gold so far in banks and my intention was to take it up to 200 kgs as the income coming out of this gold can be used for providing amenities for the devotees”, the EO said.

The income accrued out of the sale of silver contributed to the temple finances during 2017-18 which made the temple to stand ahead of all other temples.

If the temple did not sell the silver, then it would have earned revenue of about Rs 100 crore, which is less than the revenue earned by Srisailam temple. The EO said that in 2018-19, temple revenue may touch around Rs 120 crore as some more silver will be sold this year.

Still, the major chunk of revenue was coming from Rahu Kethu pujas only as it contributes Rs 60 crore per annum with about 10 lakh devotees performing pujas every year. Hundi collections have increased to Rs 15 crore from Rs 10 crore during the last three years. Another Rs 10 crore was coming as interest from fixed deposits, EO said.