5 Wealthiest Temples of India

India is globally recognized as the ‘Land of Temples‘ and Indian are known to be immensely fanatic about their religion. India is also known as the land of Gods and Goddesses and therefore servers as an ideal option for pilgrims. Every year millions of visitors throng Indian temples owing to the rich heritage and cultural significance these temples carry. People of various religions and beliefs offer many precious assets to the temple as a token of their respect and faith.
Take a look at some of the richest temples of India.

Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Kerala

Padmanabhaswamy Temple is credited with the title ‘The richest Temple in India’ and in the world as well. This temple is situated in the heart of thiruvananthapuram, kerala and has created history with its vast and enormous wealth that was retrieved from this temple recently.
This temple shot to fame on 7th July 2011, after the assests were discovered from 5 secret cellars of the temple where treasure worth more than Rs. 1,00,000 crore was found, that’s around US$22.3 billion in total, without even calculating the antique value of the objects. With this Padmanabhaswamy Temple became the richest temple beating the likes of the Tirupati Balaji temple that was till now touted to be the richest.

Interesting Fact

The treasure that was found
Antique gold ornaments
Sack full of Diamonds
Golden idol of Mahavishnu worth Rs. 500 Crore
Golden Crowns
Golden Bow
17 kg of gold coins(dating back to the East India Company period)
Gold in shape of rice trinkets(Weighing one tone! )
18 feet long golden necklace weighing 2.5 kg
Thousands of pieces of antique jewellery studded with diamonds and emeralds
Golden Vessels

Tirumala Tirupati Venkateswara Temple, Andra Pradesh

Tirupati temple is the most sacred and second richest temple of India. It is situated in Andra Pradesh and is the major pilgrimage destination of South India also known as ‘Tirupati Balaji Temple.’ Lord Balaji is worshipped in this temple, popular bollywood actor Amitabh Bachhan is a devotee of the diety and has reportedly donated around Rs 51 lakh to this temple.

Interesting Facts

Tirupati’s Venkateswara deity is clad with about 1000kgs of gold!
Every day around 150,000 laddus are made at the temple to serve the devotess

The revenue from the sale of laddu annually is more than 11 million rupees.
It is said that people drop bags of gold and at times even diamonds at the feet of Sri Venkateshwara.
Around 50,000 pilgrims visit the temple every day and
The temple gets up to Rs 650 crore in donations every year.

Saibaba Temple, Shirdi

Sai temple of Shirdi is among the top pilgrimage sites of the world. This temple is a beautiful shrine that was built in 1922. The temple is located approximately 296 Kilometers from Mumbai City in India. It is the third wealthiest temple in India where millions of devotees of different religions and castes visit everyday. Shirdi is flocked by devotees and curious tourists who journey to this holy land of Shri Saibaba. The temple has gold and silver jewellery worth approximately Rs 32 crore and silver coins worth more than Rs 6 lakh.

Interesting Fact
Like most of the perfect saints Sai Baba left no authentic record of his birth and early life before arriving at Shirdi. Nobody knows weather was Hindu, Muslim or Christian. So people of all religion visit shirdi.
On an average there is an inflow of over 40,000 devotees which reaches to a million during festivals.
The temple gets donations worth Rs 350 crore every year.

Siddhivinayak, Mumbai

The Siddhivinayak Temple is located in Prabhadevi, Dadar, Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was originally built by Mr. Laxman Vithu and Mrs. Deubai Patil in November 19th, 1801. Well known celebrities and VIPs visiting this temple is a common sight here. The dome over Ganesha is coated in 3.7 kilos of gold that was donated by a Kolkata-based businessman. On an average, the monumental Siddhivinayak Temple sees anywhere between 25,000 to 2 lakh devotees flocking in everyday to just get a glimpse of their beloved Ganesha. Sources at the Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan put their annual income at Rs 320 crore

Golden Temple, Punjab

Golden temple which is commonly known as Harmindher Sahib is located in Amritsar, Punjab and it attracts thousands of pilgrims from all over the country and world. The charismatic Golden temple is a prominent pilgrimage destination which is fully alive with religious passion and purity. This unique and charming place becomes even more beautiful and captivating during night time when it is completely lit up with its striking gold dome illuminated.
The holiest shrine in the Sikh religion has its walls decorated with wooden panels and elaborates gold and silver work. A combination of Muslim, Hindu and European design principles were used in the construction of Golden temple .The palanquin that bears the Adi Granth is set with precious stones and has a golden canopy supported by silver poles. This holy place gets as many as 40,000 visitors a day.

Related articles

• City gears up for Tirupati Balaji nuptial ceremony (thehimalayantimes.com)
• War Over the World’s Largest Hindu Shrine (ktrmurali.wordpress.com)

The Wealthy Gods of India: Who Owns the Riches?

Image via Wikipedia

In a poor country with wealthy gods, Indians are puzzled over the religious connotations and social obligations of the fabulous treasure troves found in their gods’ abodes. If it’s all about pleasing the gods, then the only question is how – Should we keep the wealth with the Gods untouched or should we take them to their subjects who need it? The ‘unholy debate’ is gaining its momentum as the masses are highly divided on religious holiness and social holiness.

The recent talks began when a treasure trove estimated to be worth more than 1 lakh crore was unearthed in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, making this house of god the richest temple in the country. The inventory of the treasure which has so far been maintained by the erstwhile royal family of Travancore, is being made by a seven-member Supreme Court-appointed panel. The six vaults labeled as A-F that contain the large junk of gold, coins etc where opened by the panel except the B vault. The Supreme Court in its latest verdict said the vault B will remain shut until the documentation process are over and adequate security cover is provided for the treasure.

While the royal family claims the treasure belongs to the gods, the Kerala government thinks on the similar lines and says it’s the wealth of the temple and it will remain there protected. The heirs of Marthanda Varma Travancore royal family told the apex court that wealth unearthed belongs to the deity and no one else, and said the government’s decision is a welcome gesture.

CPI(M) State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan sparked a controversy when he said the temple treasure is a public wealth. He demanded the wealth to be managed by a committee containing nominees of political parties. The Marxian leader’s statement was welcomed with severe criticism from the Hindu organizations, Congress party and Kerala Government. The Hindu outfits termed this as a humiliation of believers. Commenting on this, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said, “I am of the view that the treasures found in the vaults of the Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple are assets of the temple itself.”

There were many other suggestions arising from different sections of the society asking the government to use the money to start a best-equipped university for the underprivileged, to be displayed in museums or to feed the poor.

For the first time, the Tirupati Temple deposited 1,075 kilograms of gold with the State Bank of India last year owing to security concerns. It’s an open secret that huge amounts of wealth in cash and gold were recovered from Yajur Mandir of late godman Sai Baba. The country also has many rich temples at the generosity of their believers like the Tirupati temple, Siddhivinayak temple, Guruvayur temple etc.

The debate that began at the finding of treasure at the Kerala temple, is spreading across India and the national media has taken up this topic. Former judge of the supreme court, Justice VR Krishna Iyer feels the wealth should be handed over to a national trust and spent for the welfare of the poor. Yes the sentiments of the believers should be respected, but for many, it’s a tough thought to buy the view that gods would go angry over wealth. They argue that it’s at the greater welfare of people that Gods rejoice and not at the beauty of jewelry.

Related articles

• Treasure temple vault stays shut (bbc.co.uk)
• Indian court allows auditors to digitize temple wealth (cnn.com)
• Vast Indian temple treasure ‘vulnerable to tunnelling’ (calgaryherald.com)
• India ‘ritual’ on treasure probe (bbc.co.uk)