India’s places of worship are awash with money and treasure. But according to economists, “Religion is a multi-billion dollar industry today and what’s strange is there’s no transparency on accountability for the collections.”

The main wealth is in two categories: accumulated treasures as gifts from devotees, and annual income.

Accumulated treasures

According to the World Gold Council, it is estimated that out of the 12,000 tonnes of gold said to be held in India by the public, around 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of gold are held by temples, religious institutions and trusts.

India’s temple treasures have always remained a subject of myth and mystery, largely because very little is seen of them. They have been lying in closed vaults which are opened on special religious occasions and displayed, if ever, before a select audience.

According to the Crafts Council of India, an estimated 47,000 temples (mostly in southern India) are repositories of ritual art, ranging from wondrously crafted utensils, to jewels encrusted with diamonds and rubies, kept securely away from public eye.
                                                                                                                              
Amitabh Bachchan’s offering of two diamond-studded ornamental palms, costing nearly Rs 10 crores to Tirupati temple this year is just one of many generous gifts that add to the temples’ ever-growing treasure hoard.

Offerings like this have led to curious situations in the past. Sometime ago the Tirupati shrine had accumulated 8,000 kilograms of gold jewellery encrusted with precious and semi-precious stones placed at the foot of the idols. If this jewellery is exhibited to the devotees - on payment of certain fee (in order to ensure security) - it will fetch crores of rupees in revenue.

Annual income

When Pushpa Sundar, executive director of Sampradaa, Indian center for philanthropy, wanted to do a scientific survey of the multi-crore income of religious institutions, she realised that nobody had so far been able to pin down exactly how much they earn. “With one or two exceptions, all of them refused to disclose income and how it was spent,” she says. 

A poll she commissioned in urban centers only gave a clue to the money involved in one year, a whopping Rs 480 crore that went from middle-class households into temple,  gurudwara, dargah and church coffers.

But according to Sundar’s study (‘For God’s Sake – Religious Charity and Social Development in India’), even the TTD (the government –controlled Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Trust) with its whopping income of around Rs 750 crore a year, spends a mere 10-17 per cent on social and charitable activities, including religious education and the propagation of Hindu dharma.

Of this, the hundi collection is Rs 300 crore. Add to this, fixed deposits, gold reserves, returns from the sale of laddoos and hair.

Although the TTD’s primary task is to be the custodian of the shrine, it has a social facet too which is reflected in its philanthropic ventures.

During 2003-04, the TTD contributed Rs 32 crore towards medicare and Rs 12 crore for the propagation of Hindu dharma. Besides, it donates Rs 10 crore to the state government  for maintenance of other temples.

Few devotees, no matter how well-educated, seem to be worried about the disposals of these funds!
Of the shrines controlled by the minority religions, unofficial estimates put the Ajmer Sharif dargah at Ajmer income to be around Rs 50 crore. It is administered by the dargah committee, appointed by the Union ministry.

The Sikh religious body, Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) is a cash-rich body. The 2004-05 budget was pegged at Rs 224 crore, up from Rs 206 crore the previous  fiscal. Of all the gurdwaras managed by the SGPC, the Amritsar Golden Temple’s  budget at Rs 47.50 crore a year in 2003-04 was the highest.

The actual annual income of the Mahabodhi temple, India’s most important Buddhist shrine is not known, although management committee at Bodh Gaya states it to be around Rs 35-40 lakhs.

Same cloak of mystery surrounds the income of Sammed Shikharjee at Madhuvan, the most revered pilgrimage centre of the Jain community, the richest business community in India.

Making God smile?

So the total cash cost of making God smile in India is about Rs 2000 crores. And we have not gone into the accountings of all the 47000 other temples in India, some of them no doubt penurious and some of them rich shrines like Nathadwara, which are not strictly speaking “audited”.

But one huge difference marks the way temple finances are managed in India and in the Christian West. In India, a veil of secrecy hides the earnings, investments and expenditure of individual places of worship.

In Europe and North America, the financial situation of every church is public knowledge. The information is printed and updated on a website, along with details about a church’s membership, its properties, its projects or salaries.

Not just that, church websites invite readers to write back for more information. But in India, temple websites are virtually bare, except for directions on how to send donations. The websites give no information on their income or expenditure.