Police personnel stand guard at the entrance of two halls above the Haritha guest house on the hillock where the newly-renovated Yadadri temple stands. One hall is filled with men dressed in vests and veshtis, seated on the floor busy counting notes of various denominations. The other hall has women of all ages. Dressed in saffron sarees, the women are busy counting coins. The clink clank of coins can be heard from even outside the hall. The hundi opening-and-counting is a herculean task at popular temples. It requires tremendous human effort and sometimes takes a whole day’s work to complete the counting process. The counting happens amid tight security and CCTV surveillance. At the Yadadri temple, this process happens once in 15 days when the hundi is opened and the donation received is counted.
Women counting the coins inside a hall
The temple follows an April to March financial year. According to official statistics sourced from the temple officials, until March 29 of this year, the temple earned an income of Rs 80.65 crore in this financial year. The figure is an improvement from the previous financial year’s Rs 74.94 crore, a result of the fewer footfalls due to COVID-19. In 2019-20, the temple had earned a whopping Rs 132 crore as income which was much higher compared to the previous three years. The temple gets its main income from donations, darshan tickets, VIP darshanam tickets, selling of human hair, rent and sale of prasadam. With the temple being inaugurated recently after its renovation, it is likely that the hundi will now have to be opened more often because of the large crowds expected to throng the temple.
Located around 70 kms away from Hyderabad, the ancient shrine of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy is on the picturesque Yadagirigutta hill. The original centuries-old temple which was confined to 2500 square yards is now spread across 14.5 acres. The temple is being reconstructed using black granite. The swayambhu (self-manifested) deity was kept untouched in the cave located inside the sanctum sanctorum. The Telangana government has spent Rs 1,200 crore so far in the renovation and other allied development in and around the temple. Another Rs 600 crore has been earmarked for development works which will be carried out in the next two years.
The government’s decision to spend such a huge amount on the temple has raised questions about why Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao decided to spend so much on a temple in the state. While many believe it was to create a temple to match the grandeur and popularity of Andhra’s Tirumala Tirupati temple, the question that needs to be answered is - how will the government gain if Yadadri eventually becomes a popular pilgrim centre as popular as the Tirumala Tirupati? There are several reasons that can be put together to explain KCR’s decision to spend crores on the renovation and development of the temple.
Crowds throng Yadadri temple on the day of inauguration
That KCR is a religious man is no secret. In 2019, at an election rally in Nizamabad, he had said that the so-called Hindutva being propagated by the BJP and the VHP was based on hatred towards Islam and Christianity. “Their Hindutva is bogus, what we practice every day is the real Hindutva,” KCR had said.
After the formation of Telangana, as Chief Minister, KCR made several expensive offerings to various temples. In 2015, despite stiff criticism from the opposition, KCR had organised an Ayutha Chandi Maha Yagam to appease the gods. In 2016, he presented a 11.7 kg gold crown worth over Rs 3 crore to Goddess Bhadrakali at Telangana’s Warangal district. In 2017, a gold moustache was presented to Lord Veerabhadra Swamy in Telangana’s Mahbubabad district. The same year, jewels worth around Rs 5 crore were offered to Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala Tirupati on behalf of the Telangana government. In 2018, KCR offered a jewel-studded gold nose stud to Goddess Kanakadurga in Vijayawada. Many believe that the Yadadri temple is also yet another display of KCR’s religious inclination.
CM KCR and his family at the temple inauguration
According to CS Rangarajan, head priest of the popular Chilkur Balaji temple and Convenor of the Temple Protection Movement, Yadadri temple will invoke God’s blessings on not only the state but also on the people of the state as well. “The Agama Shastra says if somebody plants a tree, digs a well or helps in the construction of a temple by even donating a brick- it will help reap great blessings and benefits. In Yadadri, there are two big step wells where the Pushkarni or the divine bathing of deities takes place. Trees have also been planted and a historic temple has been constructed for posterity.”
“All this will not only reap great benefits for KCR but also for all those who participated in the construction of the temple. In this case, as the temple was built by the government from money from the exchequer, all the people in the state will be blessed abundantly,” added the head priest.
Many believe that what KCR has done at Yadadri is historic and for posterity. They believe that what has come up at Yadadri is something even critics will not have anything to complain about. Speaking to TNM, a senior temple priest, on the condition of anonymity said, “In north India, people wear their religion on their sleeves. In the south, people don’t express their religion. For the same reason, the north can be polarised and it is difficult to polarise the south. If the BJP government spent so much on a temple then it would be labelled as part of the party’s Hindutva agenda. But the TRS is not BJP. They can spend crores on a temple and still won’t be called out for Hindutva. KCR has used this to his benefit and sent a strong political message through Yadadri.”
“We’re all happy about the Yadadri temple. This is a signature renovation. Something like this hasn’t been done in decades now. This temple is on par with what the kings would build during their days. The BJP’s party symbol is a lotus. But let’s not forget the real colour of the lotus is pink- the same colour as KCR’s political party,” added the senior priest.
CM KCR and his wife at the inauguration
The priest also went on to say that Modi spent around Rs 339 crore for the Kashi Vishwanath corridor and compared it to the amount spent by CM KCR on Yadadri temple. “Yadadri temple is a Kashi Vishwanath moment for KCR. The Yadadri temple is now in the same league as the Brihadisvara temple in Thanjavur, Somnath temple in Gujarat or the Konark Temple in Odisha.”
According to Kingshuk Nag, author and former editor of The Times of India, there is a multiplicity of objectives in KCR developing the Yadadri temple. “The primary aim isn’t appeasement of Hindus. It is money. Recognising Hyderabad as a centre for everything - including pilgrim centre may be one, but the hidden objective is the development of the area which will lead to increase in land values. For all you know KCR's people may have already bought acres of land around Yadadri temple even before the development began. It is after liberalisation that money started flowing into politics. The main money comes from businessmen and big contractors. Directly earning from the temple’s income may not be the goal. The aim is to gain from development, contractors, rise in land value etc,” Nag said.
The Yadadri Temple Development Authority (YTDA) is the governing body that looks after the temple administration and the developmental activities. A board has not been constituted as yet though it is likely that this will happen soon. According to Geetha Reddy, Executive Officer (EO) of the Yadadri temple, the Endowments Department takes care of the administration of the temple and decides about the necessary orders and regulation systems. “The temple’s income is used for paying the salaries of the temple staff and the priests. A large part of the income is also used for improving pilgrim facilities. The department sanctions the budget proposed by the Executive Officer as per the needs of the temple. The matter ends once the sanction is received from the Endowments Commissioner,” she explained.
The gold-plated door to the temple's sanctum sanctorum
“The temple contributes some money to the common good fund and the archakas welfare fund of the Endowments Department. This constitutes nearly 22% of the income of the temple. This is fixed by the government as per the Telangana Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions Act,” added the EO.
This means that KCR’s government will not directly earn too much from the income generated from the Yadadri temple. According to the EO the main aim of the government was development of the region. According to Geetha, a total estimated expense of Rs 1,800 crore has been earmarked for the temple and other allied development. The government will earn mostly from tourism in Basavapur, located around 5 kms away from Yadagirigutta. Basavapur will be turned into a tourism hub and will have two marriage convention halls, a five-star hotel and other facilities. Around Rs 200 crore will be spent on developing Basavapur itself. According to the EO, there are no industrial or agricultural areas to be found around Yadagirigutta “Until a few years ago there was no water here. It was only after Godavari water was connected here that the place received water. The land value was only a few lakhs per acre until a decade ago, today it is around a crore for an acre.”
Aerial view from the hillock on which the temple is located
While there are claims that CM wanted to build a Tirupati-like temple in Telangana and Yadadri was the answer to this, Pavan Kumar, former journalist and political analyst feels that at least immediately, Yadadri will not become a replacement for Tirupati. “For devotees, Tirupati will always be Tirupati, while Yadadri will remain Yadagirigutta (the name by which it was formerly known as), at least for the people of this generation. This is because the development has taken place during their generation, while Tirupati has been there for many generations over the centuries. Eventually Yadadri temple might be able to carve out a niche for itself.” Kumar thinks that Warangal will likely benefit from Yadadri temple. “By virtue of being centrally located between Hyderabad and Warangal, Yadadri project will successfully bring together the already-saturated Hyderabad and the fast-developing Warangal,” added Kumar.
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