Chennai: At Chennai’s Arulmigu Parthasarathy Swamy Temple, nearly 100 people seated in multiple rows on the floor have piles of currency notes dumped in front of them on makeshift carpets. The men deftly go about with their work — separating different currency notes into bundles and counting them.
Over five hours later, all the hundials (collection boxes) are cleared and the counted cash is sent to the bank. Jewellery and gold are weighed and kept separately, all in front of multiple cameras, which live-stream the entire process on the temple’s official YouTube channel.
While many temples in Tamil Nadu take videos of the opening of the hundials for years, 48 senior-grade temples and some other large temples have been live-streaming for a year following the direction of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department.
Uma Maheswaran, the superintendent at Parthasarathy temple, one of the popular shrines in Chennai, said the live-streaming has brought more transparency to the process and ensured public trust.
The instruction to live-stream the process was given following the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came to power in 2021, the HR&CE department told ThePrint without mentioning the exact date the order was issued.
Notably, a petition was filed in the Madras High Court last year seeking to direct authorities to appoint retired IAS/IPS officers or judges in district committees to monitor the opening of the hundials of temples. Petitioner Rangarajan Narasimhan had alleged widespread theft and urged the court to direct the authorities to not open hundials in the absence of officials.
In November, the HR&CE department submitted to the high court that 48 senior grade temples were directed to live-stream the hundial opening. Senior-grade temples are religious institutions having an executive officer in the cadre of the joint/deputy/assistant commissioner taking into account their income and movable and immovable properties, according to the Tamil Nadu government.
The city’s popular temples — Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore, Vadapalani Murugan Temple, and Sri Parthasarathy Perumal Temple in Triplicane — are among the shrines instructed to live-stream the hudial opening, according to the HR&CE department.
The list also includes some of Tamil Nadu’s biggest temples such as Madurai’s Meenakshi Sundaraswarar Temple, Kancheepurm’s Kamakshi Amman Temple, and the Arunachaleswarar Temple in Tiruvannamalai.
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‘Live-streaming has ensured more accountability’
Mandatory live-streaming instruction was given to 48 senior-grade temples and nearly 100 Grade 1 temples to ensure transparency, said C. Lakshmanan, Joint Commissioner at the HR&CE department.
He said the department decided to implement the process only on big temples as the process is expensive, adding that all the major temples are live-streaming the process without failure.
“From fixing the cameras to making all the necessary arrangements, the process is challenging. Instruction is only given to certain temples based on their income. For some temples, setting up the system will become more expensive than the income,” he said, adding that many temples don’t have hundials.
Lakashmanan asserted that the initiative has found much acceptance from the public.
Officials at Kanthakottam temple, another major shrine in Chennai’s George Town, said they began the live-streaming process in February 2023. “The HR&CE officials will be present in the temple until the challan showing the deposit is reached here,” said an official at the temple.
The Kanthakottam temple, which opens the hundial once in three months, usually has Rs 15-16 lakh on average as the income, the official said, adding that the money is used for temple maintenance, paying staff salary, among others.
“The remaining amount will go to a fixed deposit. It will be used for bigger needs such as temple renovation after obtaining permission from the HR&CE department.”
The gold collected from the hundials will be kept in a safety locker inside the temple after recording the weight at the register, the official said. “It is used to make jewellery for the deity during special events.”
Only the general hundial opening is live-streamed at the temple and not the hundial marked for ‘annadaanam’ (for providing free meals), as the money is used regularly for ‘annadanam’ purposes.
According to the official, the nearly day-long process is completed in a transparent manner and done as per schedule. “We avoid any auspicious days for the event as the temple is visited by bigger crowds.”
Volunteers from the neighbourhood are also invited to participate in this process, the official said. “Nearly 70 volunteers participate each time. They are given lunch, snacks and travel allowance.”
There has been no public complaint of theft or mismanagement of money in the temple and live-streaming has ensured more accountability, the Kanthakottam temple official asserted.
At Parthasarathy temple, Maheswaran said, the counting is done by volunteers from the public with the temple staff supervising them. “A notice regarding the day of the hundial opening is displayed at the temple notice board seven days before the event.”
The temple superintendent said an assistant commissioner and an inspector from the HR&CE are also present when the hundial is opened once in 20 days. The official, however, did not reveal the average amount of donations received by the Vaishnavite temple.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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