A man mistakenly dropped his mobile phone in the donation box of Sri Kandaswamy Temple in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruporur. He then approached the officials to get his phone back, but his request was declined.
The temple administration contacted the man, Dinesh, to retrieve the data from the phone. The issue was later taken to the notice of Tamil Nadu Minister Sekar Babu, who said “anything that is deposited into the offering box, even if it be an arbitrary action, goes into god’s account.”
‘Any Offerings Made Into The Hundial Directly Go Into The Deity’s Account’
“As per the practises and tradition at the temples, any offerings made into the hundial directly go into the account of the deity of that temple. Rules do not permit the administration to return the offerings to the devotees,” Babu was quoted as saying by PTI.
This incident is not the first such one in the state. A devotee from Alappuzha in Kerala mistakenly dropped her 1.75 gold chain into the hundial of the Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple in Palani in May 2023.
The gold chain fell into the hundial when she removed the Tulasi garland around her neck to make an offering. However, considering her financial background and after confirming through CCTV footage that the chain had fallen by accident, the chairman of the temple board of trustees bought a new gold chain of the same value at his expense and gave it to her.
An official said that as per the Installation, Safeguarding and Accounting of Hundial Rules, 1975, none of the offerings made into the hundials can be returned to the owner at any point, as they belonged to the temple.
