Bruce and his code for Tirupathi

Who has not heard of Robert Bruce, the hero of Scotland. Born Robert I (1274-1329), he is more widely known as Robert the Bruce, the King of Scotand, from 1306 to 1329. He fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotland’s place as an independent nation, and is today remembered in Scotland as a national hero. However, there is one more Bruce and he is closely connected to the East India Company and British India. A British civil officer, this Bruce had a hand in drafting the first set of administrative rules for the Srinivasa or Venkataramana Temple in Tirumala. Unfortunately, he remains relatively unknown and even today mention Bruce and the majority of people link him to the heroic Scot King.

The Indian Bruce, as we will call him here, formulated a set of rules which came to be known as  Bruce's Code. This code, which operated for several years, is a set of rules for the management and administration of temples of  Tirumala and Tirupathi and it was enacted by the East India Company way back in 1821.

Bruce was the District Commissioner of Chitooor under which Tirupathi-Tirumala came. He drafted a set of  42 rules to ease the administration of temples. These rules were drawn from the existing customs and traditions practiced in the temple and  they did not interfere in the day-to-day affairs of the temples.

The British found themselves the masters of  South India after they killed Tipu Sultan in the fourth and final Anglo-Mysore War of 1799. Except for the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas, there was no other major power in south India.  The British found themselves ruling over a fairly large part of south India, including the province of Tirumala-Tirupathi.

The vast wealth of the temple and its huge income was a major attraction to the East India Company. The company decided to take over the management of the temple and Bruce, the then district commissioner, framed the rules. The main objective of the Bruce Code, as it came to be called, was to generate fixed revenue to the company and also to prevent misappropriation and mismanagement of temple funds. The rules or the Bruce Code were in force till 1842-1843 when Queen Victoria of England stripped the company of all powers to administer Hindu temples.

The Srinivasa Temple, till then, had been generously endowed with and funded by scores of Hindu Kingdoms, including the Pallavas, Cholas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagars. After the Vijayanagar Empire disappeared in the mid 17^th century (1665), the area of Thondaimandalam came under Muslim rulers including Golconda. When the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, extinguished Golconda in 1687, Tirupathi-Tirumala came under the Mughals. It was in 1710 that Thondaimandalama became a separate Kingdom and Sadatullah Khan became its first Nawab. In 1748, the Nawab of Arcot first assigned the revenue of the Tirupathi temple to the East India Company. In 1782, Hyder Ali of Mysore, captured the region but he did not interfere with the administration of the temple. In 1801, the East India Company took over the administration of the temple from the Nawab of Arcot.

In 1803, Bruce, the then Collector of  Chitoor, sent a report to the board of revenues of the East India Company showing the full account of the institution, along with details of pujas, expenses, and extent of lands. This report was known as Statton’s Report on the Tirupati Pagoda. These reports formed the basis on which the company controlled the temple till 1821. The report was accepted and the code was prepared on July 25, 1821 and it was in force for a little over two decades.

The Bruce Code makes for fascinating reading. It states that food offering were made to the deity six times a day. To pay for this, erstwhile rules had donated the revenues of 432 villages surrounding Tirupathi to the temple. When the temple came under the Sultans, the Nawab of Arcot and finally the Company, the offerings were reduced to three times a day-morning, noon and night.     

Between 1805-16, there were many instances and complaints about misappropriation and mismanagement of  temple funds and when they were brought to the notice of board, the East India Company passed Regulation VII of 1817 to check such buses. Through the regulation provided only superintendence and not management, the board interfered in almost all aspects of the administration.

Such interference in the Tirupathi temple continued till the Court of Directors in England strongly resented the participation of the Company in idolatry and ordered its relinquishment of their administration of religious endowments. This order was signed by Queen Victoria in 1842-43 when the administration of the temple was transferred to the Hathiramji Mutt, Tirupati. It was only in 1932 that the TTD was formed to administer the temple.

The little known rookery

The world’s largest known rookery of Oliver Ridley turtles is in Orissa and thousands of  Nature lovers, wildlife enthusiasts, zoologists and researchers flock to the Gahirmatha Beach to witness the turtles mate, nest and hatch.

The beach separates the Bhitarkarnika mangroves from the Bay of Bengal and it forms part of the Gahirmatha Marine reserve. Apart from this beach, Orissa has two other known nesting areas for turtles and they are on the mouth of  Rushikulya and Devi rivers. The Olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is primarily found in the Pacific and Indian Ocean and over recent years, Orissa has attained international recognition for this mass congregation of turtles.

However, there are many other places in India where Oliver Ridley turtles mate, nest and return to the Sea. Though they may not be in the numbers seen on the Orissa beach, they are a fascinating sight and what is more many of these areas are relatively unknown.

One such place is in Karnataka but very few people know about it. The Murudeshwar-Gangavali coastline of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka is known for the breeding of this critically endangered species

The beach along the 75-kilometre long Murudeshwar - Gangavali route on the west coast is ideal for breeding of these turtles between November and February.

However, a few cluster of turtle eggs have been found even between September-October and February-March. Last year, close to 2.86 lakhs eggs were laid by these turtles.

Potential nesting beaches include Jali, Talmakki, Murdeshwar and Baindoor in Bhatkal taluk, Apsarakonda and Manki, Haldipur in Honnavar taluk and Dhareshwar, Baad-Kagal, Gokarn and Gangavali beaches in Kumta taluk.

The Olive Ridley turtle is so named  because of the greenish color of its skin and shell. It is close relative of the Kemp’s Ridley. Both these turtles are the smallest of the sea turtles, which prefer the open ocean. They migrate hundreds or thousands of miles every year, and females congregate once an year in selected beaches where they lag eggs and swim back.

Olive Ridleys have nesting sites in tropical and subtropical beaches all over the world. Generally carnivorous, they feed on snails, crabs, jellyfish and shrimp. They are also known to eat algae and seaweed too. Hatchlings, most of which perish before reaching the safety of the ocean, fall prey to birds, crabs, raccoons, pigs and snakes.

They also provided protection to the eggs in absence of their mother turtles. After laying eggs, the female turtles go back to the deep sea without waiting to see the hatchlings, which generally emerge around 45 days of the nesting. "We have made fencing in around 5-km long area,"

Apart from Orissa and Karnataka, these turtles are also found in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and of course West Bengal.  Do you want to see Olive Ridley turtles nearer home. Then head for Murudeshwar, a small town in Bhatkal taluk. The nearest airport is Mangalore, which is 160 kilometre away. Murudeshwar has a railway station and it is on the Konkan railway route.

Murudeshwar beach has two beautiful temples and the statue of Shiva, which is the second tallest in the world, is awe inspiring. The sea shore is inhabited by crabs and you can see crabs digging holes in the beach sand. Bathing is not allowed in the beach since the sea is inhabited by crabs and scores of people have been bitten by crabs. 

Budgeting Venkateshwara

Very few institutions apart from Governments and undertakings like the Indian Railways present budgets every year. Every year, the regular budget in India is receded by the Railway Budget. However, there is another institution in India whose budget is awaited as eagerly as the Union Budget and the Railway Budget and this is the budget of the famous Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the Lord Venkateswara or Srinivasa temple in Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh.

The TTD budget is generally regarded as the largest religious budget in India and one of the largest on the world.

The TTD, a month ago, approved a Rs.2,401 crore budget for 2014-15. This is an increase of over six percent compared to 2013-14 budget of Rs.2,248 crore.
It has budgeted a massive Rs.900 crore as offerings by devotees in the “hundi” or offering box. This is as against Rs. 859 crores it had targeted under this head last year. Apart from this amount, it is targetting Rs.655 crore as interest on its money and other valuables deposited in national banks (Last year, it was Rs. 555 crores).
Another massive and rather regular revenue earner for the TTD is  human hair. Thousands of devotees offer hair to the Lord every day and the “hairaising” sale is expected to fetch Rs.220 crore. This is as against Rs.200 crore that the TTD earned last year.

It also stands to gain Rs.190 crore though sale of  Darshan tickets, Rs.130 crore through sale of  prasada and Rs.108 crore through rentals of its properties all over India.

The interest on investments deposited by the TTD in national banks is placed at  Rs 555 crore.
Since it is one of the biggest employers in the region, payment of salaries and wages to its 9,000 staff will cost it Rs.400 crore. This is in addition to 7000 employees and twelve other temples it runs in other parts of the country.

Another Rs.155 crore is budgeted as outsourcing expenses. Besides, the TTD has set aside Rs.109 crore for propagation of  Hindu dharma, Rs.88 crore for education and Rs.92 crore for health and sanitation. It has also set aside Rs.52 crore on vigilance and security and Rs.56 crore on hospitals operated by it.

The budget this year and those of the earlier years show that the sacred abode of the “Lord of  Seven Hills’, shows no sign of recession.

The Lord’s abode, it seems, is immune from recession. Year by year, the TTD coffers are getting richer and richer and there is no end to the ever growing queue of  devotees and their offerings.

The budget also shows a rising graph every year and this shows the faith that the people have in the Lord. Is this a lesson that our politicians and bureaucrats can learn.