 "Devotees take part in 'aarti' at Siddhivinayak temple on Ganesh Chaturthi festival, in Mumbai, September 7, 2024. File Photo/PTI")
Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak Temple is one of the richest shrines in India. The famous Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Ganesh earned over Rs 130 crore in revenue in the financial year 2024-25.
This is a significant uptick from its earnings in the previous financial year. The Siddhivinayak temple’s revenue could further rise in the coming year.
Let’s take a closer look.
1. The Siddhivinayak Temple at Prabhadevi in Mumbai reported record-high annual earnings of Rs 133 crore for the 2024-25 financial year, according to the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust. The figures were disclosed in the annual budget presented by the management committee on March 31.
2. This marks a 15 per cent surge from the earlier revenue of Rs 114 crore in 2023-24, Veena Patil, executive officer of the trust, said, as per Times of India (TOI). Speaking to the newspaper, Siddhivinayak Trust’s deputy executive officer Sandeep Rathod said, “Owing to the administration’s efficiency, our income expected to be Rs 114 crore rose to a record Rs 133 crore, surpassing the trust’s own estimates by 15 per cent.”
3. He attributed the rise in the temple’s annual revenue to better facilities to ensure a smooth darshan that creates a pleasant experience. Rathod said that “if queues move swiftly in an orderly fashion, more people can take darshan, thus increasing donations.”
4. Rathod also pointed out that every devotee gets to spend 10-15 seconds for darshan at the temple, which he said “fares better” than other large shrines that give 5-7 seconds. “As a result, people’s hearts are inclined to donate more,” he told TOI. The money is utilised for the trust’s welfare activities.
5. The trust calculates revenue from donations made at the shrine, along with those done online, earnings from carrying out puja rituals, the sale of laddoo and other prasad, as well as offerings of gold and silver. “We do adjust revenue assessment for inflation. Even though prices of food items and gold prices have risen, we have seen more items being auctioned in our gold-silver. Prasad is sold on a no-profit-no-loss basis,” Rathod said.
6. The Siddhivinayak Temple’s earnings are expected to touch Rs 154 crore in the financial year 2025-26, as per the TOI report.
7. On March 30, the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust auctioned 207 gold articles worth Rs 1.33 crore on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, which marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year.
8. Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, Vaishno Devi Temple in Jammu, Maharashtra’s Shirdi Saibaba Temple, Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Andhra Pradesh, Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Guruvayur Temple in Kerala, Jagannath Temple in Odisha’s Puri, Somnath Temple in Gujarat and Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi are among the richest temples of India.
With inputs from agencies