From: st1oc@jane.uh.edu (Satish, Kumar S.)
Subject: Re: Rich priests - NOT in present day TN!
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 21:34:00 GMT

In article <l9qgt2INNahb@bathtub.cs.utexas.edu>, raman@cs.utexas.edu (Raman Rajagopalan) writes...
>In article <2A9C3289.24032@orion.oac.uci.edu> sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu (M. Sundaramoorthy) writes:
>>In article <BtLLLq.5J8@ireq.hydro.qc.ca> srini@ireq-num.hydro.qc.ca (K.Srinivasan) writes:
>>>sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu (M. Sundaramoorthy) writes:
>>
>>	(Aside: Still the temple priests and prohits who perform rituals are
>>	well paid and respected by the common folks than many other low caste
>>	people who are still involved in traditional professions. Their
>>	economic progress (may be a section, though), may be judged by the
>>	TVS-50 ad. with a 'gurukkaL' riding the moped and a caption:
>>	'paNditharkaL munnERiya kaalam').
>>		
> 
>You have got to be kidding... you are claiming that a group must
>be wealthy because of a TV ad????
> 
>Anyway, I visited India this summer and actually spoke to priests in
>several temples, from as far south as tirunelveli to kanchipuram in
>the north.
> 
>Priests whose jobs are NOT hereditary get a monthly salary of Rs. 300.
>Priests whose jobs ARE hereditary get one "padi" of rice per day as salary -
>at least in the ekambareshwarar (siva) temple in kanchipuram!
>In addition, priests may keep whatever pilgrims leave on their plates.> 
>In a temple close of tirunelveli, the priest's salary was rs.300, and
>the watchman's salary was rs.225.  seems hardly worth it considering
>that priests study for *years* while nightwatchman need only be alert
>at night!  This was a small Shasta temple near Gopalasamudram village.
> 
>While priests' families *may* be able to eat on the "tips", I doubt
>there is going to much left over for mopeds and such.  Think especially
>about the smaller temples or even not-so-famous large temples -- 
>there are not very many people who visit these temples, and hence it
>follows that those priests are likely to be extremely poor.
> 
>Also, be aware that systematic faulty accounting and sale of temple
>lands at cut-rate prices has left many temples unable to buy supplies
>even for daily poojas, much less maintenance of the structures themselves.
> 
>In kanchi, for example, apparently 2 crores (market value) of a temple's
>lands were sold off and the temple gained only 2 lakhs from the sale.
>Rather than public auction, the lands were apparently divided into 
>plots and the plots were bought up by individuals favored by the
>government at cut-rate prices.  This was at a Siva temple (near the
>Kamakshi temple) well over a thousand years old -- the ceiling was leaking 
>water, and if the funds continue to be diverted as they are, there may not 
>be a temple there in 50 years or so!  
> 
>The way the faulty accounting works is as follows: the actual hundi
>collections are entered properly in the books.  then, the govt.
>appointed temple management "buys" things with the money for the temple,
>to pay electric and other bills, and to pay salaries.
>Unfortunately, the temple does not always see the things that were
>bought for it, or things end up costing temples what screws and bolts
>cost the US military!
> 




>Instead, the monies are used by the "temple committees"
>to line member's pockets: for example, temple funds were used at
>one point for buying patrol for a visiting motorcade (but not
>entered as such in the books).  The monies legally allocated for petrol 
>could then be pocketed by individuals. Net loss for the temple, net gain 
>for some individuals associated with the ruling party (this incident 
>happened while the DMK was in power).
> 

If this is true,it is indeed highly disgusting!


>In fact, the advice I was given by a priest on the best way to
>help a temple these days is *not* to put money in hundis,
>but rather to do some service yourself - perhaps set up
>an account with a store to deliver flowers to the temples on a daily
>basis, etc.  Money in hundis is apparently eaten by corrupt
>politicians at a rate of well over 60%.
> 
>>
>>M. Sundaramoorthy
>>sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu
>>sundar@esv1.hsis.uci.edu  
> 
> 
>- Raman Rajagopalan
> 
> 


your article was really good. 
If somebody can say  that temple priests are a rich lot, then it 
is absolutely ridiculous!

okay, we have priests in major cities like Madras or even Madurai
going around in TVS -50s. But the majority of them in our state
do not even  have a decent .....
good life. I even once faced a nasty( to the core!) guy stating that
temple priests must be eating a lot and that is why they have
big tummies!
What a genius to see beyond reason?

Hope, people in the right minds see things in the right
perspective and hope that our temples serve the purpose they
were created for/by the believers.

-'egerzhaaghi'
KSS.