An auction of human hair offered at the shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati temple by devotees has fetched a whopping Rs 17.82 crore.
The auction was held in two phases – in July and August netting Rs 11.88 crore and Rs 5.94 crore respectively. The temple is visited by millions of devotees every year.
The temple management body – Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam – had expected to collect Rs 150 crore by selling human hair in 2016-17.
Image courtesy: BBC
Annually, about 10 million devotees, including women and children, get their heads tonsured as fulfilment of vow before entering the 2000-year old hill temple.
The temple management also made a decision to buy 2.25 lakh kgs of cow ghee from Karnal Milk foods Ltd of Haryana at a cost of Rs. 376 per kg, aggregating to Rs. 8.46 crore for use in the making the much sought after ‘Tirupati Laddu’ and other prasadams for next six months.
Shedding light on the huge numbers of visitors to the temple, the management body has also decided to buy 39.32 lakh litres of toned milk this year at a cost of Rs. 11.28 crore for free distribution to infants of devotees waiting for ‘darshan’ in massive queue complexes.
