TIRUPATI: The world’s richest Hindu temple, the Lord Venkateswara shrine atop Tirumala, received a record income of Rs 782.69 crore in cash offerings (kanukas) from devotees for the Srivari Hundi in the six months since April this year.
The temple trust board had hoped to earn a major chunk of its income from the hundi and made a budgetary estimate of Rs 1,000 crore for the 2022-23 financial year. It has, by now, earned nearly 78 per cent of the estimated collections though three more months are left for the completion of the year.
Giving details of the collections, TTD executive officer Dharma Reddy said on Sunday that the hill temple has been witnessing an unprecedented pilgrim footfall ever since the Covid-19 restrictions were eased in March this year.
The temple received Rs 122 crore as monthly collection through the Srivari Hundi in September, while the previous month, August, saw the temple’s hundi collecting Rs 140.34 crore, the highest ever in the history of TTD.
As per the official statistics, the income through the cash offerings in the hundi was Rs79.39 crore and Rs 79.34 crore in January and February this year respectively.
The Hundi collection increased to Rs 128.60 crore in March, registering a jump of nearly Rs 50 crore. It, however, decreased to Rs 126.65 crore in April. It leaped to Rs 130.29 crore in May.
While the Hundi received cash offerings of Rs 123.76 crore in June, it rose to Rs 139.46 crore in July, Rs 140.34 crore in August and Rs 122.19 crore in September.
Meanwhile, the number of pilgrims having darshan at Tirumala temple is also increasing. In February, about 10.97 lakh pilgrims had darshan, and it increased to 19.72lakh in March, 20.64 lakh in April, 22.62 lakh in May, 23.23 lakh in June, 23.37 lakh in July and 22.22 lakh in August. In September, 21.12 lakh pilgrims had darshan and 9.02 lakh pilgrims got the tonsure done.
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