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.      

A hair raising story of Tirupathi

This is literally hair raising. There is only one institution in the world  where hair fetches revenue in crores and this seems to be increasing year by year.

This is the temple of Venkateshwara, Balaji or Srinivasa in Tirupathi in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The richest temple in India in terms of revenue, this is the only temple which earns a minimum of one tenth of  crores it earns annually by way of hair offered by devotees.

The revenue that the TTD, the controlling body of the temple,  gets by way of hair donation was a whopping Rs. 200 crores during 2011-12. This was one tenth of the total revenue of Rs. 1949 crores that the temple earned during the period.   

Well, this hair raising revenue seems to be on the rise year by year. The TTD itself had projected a modest Rs. 150 crores from tonsuring heads for 2012-13 but the earlier year’s figures itself have crossed last year’s figures.

Every year, thousands of people, including women, visit the temple to get their heads tonsured to Lord Venkateshwara, in keeping with a centuries-old tradition.

This age-old tradition has spawned a multi-crore business in the TTD itself. The TTD auctions and exports human hair export and much of it is used world wide for making wigs and artificial hair.

In keeping with the latest developments in technology, the TTD from last year has taken up e-auctioning of hair. Last year, as many as 49 traders participated in the hair auction and bid huge amounts for various categories of hair.

Don’t lose hair over the auction. It was held in two phases - first in September 2011 and then again in March 2012. While 466 tonnes of hair was auctioned in the first phase, 95 tonnes of hair was sold in the second phase.

The hairy business is not so easy as tonsuring. The hair offered is broadly divided into five categories depending on the length and texture - hair longer than 31 inches; 16- 30 inches; 10-15 inches; five-nine inches; and the last category is of less than five inches. There is also a sixth variety, grey hair, donated by senior citizens. This has almost zero demand.

The hair varying between 16 to 30 inches put up for e-auction fetched the TTD an amount of Rs 53.54 cr at a bidding price of Rs 18,700 per kilo, while the hair varying between 10 to 15 inches earned a remarkable profit of Rs 6.18 cr.

The variety of hair ranging from 5 to 9 inches in size fetched Rs 93.57 lakh.

By the way, each category of hair has its own name and unique characteristic. The long and uniformly trimmed hair is called Remy  and this has huge demand in Europe and the US, where it is woven into wigs.

The non-Remy hair, broken and short, has huge demand in China, which in turn makes wigs and sells it in the American and African market, especially Nigeria.

In the domestic market, Tirumala hair is popular in Mumbai for making wigs for filmstars.

The hairy tale has a tradition that goes back to centuries. Devotees believe that while offering hair, they casts off all the vices, vanities and sins. Srinivasa pardons them and showers them with love and affection.

There is an interesting story about how head tonsuring originated here. Thousands of years ago, Srinivasa or Balaji was hit on his head by a shepherd, when he was a cow giving milk to him. A small portion of Srinivasa’s scalp became bald.

A Gandharva princess, Neela Devi,  noticed the bald patch and she immediately cut off a portion of her hair and with magical power  implanted it on Srinivasa’s scalp.

Srinivasa is pleased by the devotion of Neela Devi.  As hair is a beautiful aspect of the female, he promises her that all his devotees who come to his abode should render their hair to him, and she would be the recipient of all the hair received. Hence it is believed that hair offered by the devotees is accepted by Neela Devi herself. The hill, Neeladri, is one among seven hills of Tirupathi and it is  named after her.

By the way, the West has fallen in a big way for Indian hair. Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paris Hilton,  Nicole Richie and many more won’t use any other hair except Indian.

Hollywood and European cine stars insist on Indian hair extensions and nothing less, claiming that they are the best. Indian hair was used for Samantha Morton's hairdo in the film “Enduring Love”.

Hair extensions are now common in the West. It is the name for bonding fake or human hair to one's scalp to make tresses look longer, lush and thick.

Indian hair outbeats all other hair. They are strong, durable and can be fashioned in any manner-curly, coloured and blow-dried

Did you know that exclusive saloons in London and other cities in UK charge a minimum of £500 for hair extensions which need replacement every six weeks.

Much of this hair comes from Tirupati. Such hair has been nicknamed as Temple hair. There are more than 50 saloons in London alone providing Indian temple hair and this hairy business is booming.

Some of the hair, many tonnes in fact, find their way to the hair factories of Eluru, a town in Andhra Pradesh. Eluru has some of the biggest hair processing factories in India. Commission agents from Eluru, Bangalore and Chennai make a visit after every two and half months to make bids for the hair that the temple authorities auction.
The hair is packed and transported to the factories where they are given a good wash. They are then treated after separation and smoked and packed in locks. Two hundred strands of a 16 inch hair would make one pack and would fetch 30 cents if it is sold to buyers in Italy and $1.5 in the US.

Several decades earlier, people tonsured hair in their own houses and then came to Tirupathi. Subsequently, they could summon a barber to the cottage in Tirupathi and get a tonsure.  But now, people make it a point to visit Tirupathi and offer hair and this is known as Kalyan Katta.

On their part, devotees say Kalyana Katta is a symbolic gesture of surrendering ego to God. In all, 600 barbers cut hair of 10,000 devotees daily for the purpose.

There are 60 women barbers too. Each barber is trained to tonsure 60 heads during a six-hour shift. There is a separate enclosure in the temple town for the Kalyana Katta ceremony. The daily amount of hair collected is over a ton.

Every six hours, the cut hair is collected, put in sealed containers and stored till the day of the annual auction. The auction attracts the highest bidders from across the Globe. Some reports claim that the hair goes to German and Italian pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies for Rs 7,000 per kilo.

Once the devotees donate hair, they take a dip in the holy Pushkarini and then visit the shrine of Balaji.

The Emperor who lost all his hair

He is the only bald king to have ruled over the Mysore Kingdom. He is also perhaps the only King who had lost all his hair when lightning struck him when he was going to a temple.

Even today, several centuries after he lost his hair, he is still recognised as Bola or  the bald King.

He reigned for just four years.Yet, he was instrumental in establishing a Kingdom. He is also responsible for the construction of a temple in Mysore.  Yet, this ruler today is better known for the loss of his hair than any of his exploits.

This “hairy”  story is that of  King Bola Chamaraja IV of Mysore. He is important in the history of Karnataka as he is the first ruler of the Wodeyar dynasty of Mysore to withhold payment of tributes or Kanike to the Vijayanagars.

The Wodeyars till the time of  Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar were vassals of  Vijayanagar. The bald king withheld tributes which had to be paid to the Viceroy of Vijayanagar stationed at Srirangapatna.

There is an interesting story about how the King lost his hair.
The then Wodeyar Kingdom included Chamundi Hills, which is situated in Mysore. It was the custom of the Wodeyars right from the time of its founder, Yaduraya, to visit the Chamundi Temple and pray before Goddess Chamundi.    

Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar (he was born on July 25, 1507) one day decided to pay a visit to Chamundi Hills. Till then, it had always been the custom among the Wodeyars to first visit Chamundi and then go to other shrines.

On that day, for reasons best known to him, the King first visited the Mahabaleshwara temple atop the Chamundi Hills.

The Mahabaleshwara temple is located  near the Chamundeshwari temple and it is among the earliest known structures of the Hills. It is also called Mahabalagiri after the deity Mahabala. In fact, the area was earlier known as Mahabali Hills 

Raja Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar (1572-76)  entered  the Mahabala temple without first offering  customary poojas to Goddess Chamundeshwari. Consequently, the king was struck by lightening. The King lost his hair but survived the lightning attack.  The “hairy episode”, it is believed, is what converted generations of Mysore rulers into staunch devotees of  their family deity Chamundeshwari. As far as Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar was concerned, he became an ardent devotee of Chamundeshwari and visited the temple often thanking the Goddess for saving his life.
There is another legend about Bola Wodeyar and his hair. It is believed that he had gone hunting in the forests of Chamundi Hills when lightning stuck. He lost all his hair but managed to survive.

Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar was the son of Hiriya Bettada Chamaraja Wodeyar. He was a contemporary of the Vijayanagar Emperor, Sriranga Deva Raya, the first. After Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar, the son of his elder brother, Bettada Wodeyar (AD 1576-78), came to power.  

Bola Chamaraja built the Trineshwara temple in Mysore and also drained the Cholagere tank in Mysore town.

His full name is Maha Mandalaswara Birudu Antembara Ganda Raja Sri Hiriya Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar IV, Raja of Mysore and paramount ruler of the Wodeyar territories. If you think this is a mouthful how about the full name of Kanteerava Narasaraja Wodeyar, perhaps the greatest Wodeyar Emperor. His full name: Maha Mandalaswara Birudantembara Ganda Karnataka Charawara Andhra Bala Sanga Karikula Aryandhra Nripa Garva Parvata Kulisayudha Tirumala Nayaka Chaturangabala Vallari Lavitra Parabala Meghanila Ripuraya Nikara Sarabha Bherunda Samastorvisa Makuta Manigana Ranjeeta Pada Padma Sanagara Vijaya Vadhutisa Kote Kolahala Raja Sri Randhira Kantirava Narasaraja Wodeyar I, Raja of Mysore. 
Coming back to Bola Chamaraja Wodeyar-It was his son Raja Wodeyar who tried to molest Alamelu, the wife of  a Vijayanagar Viceroy,  and ended up being cursed by her. The curse continues even today. Raja Wodeyar was his son from marriage to Kempa Ammani of Bilikere.

Bola Wodeyar died on November 9, 1576, the one and only bald king of Mysore. However he left behind a bouquet of  rituals and riches to the Chamundi which subsequent Emperors diligently followed.