The Kalkaji Mandir squabble brings to mind a similar dogfight over donations made to an equally, if not more, famous temple. The Hanuman temple abutting the old Rivoli Theatre in Connaught Place, too, has had a bitter legacy of disputing priestly families. One of the priests was a regular in the old Coffee House in the early 1970s when yours truly, along with a couple of fellow cub reporters, used to regularly drop in for coffee costing a princely sum of four annas, that is, 25 paise. Always dressed in red or a green kurta and churidar pyjamas, the short-statured priest with a scraggly beard and a JNU-type jhola slung on his shoulders, spewed Marxist nostrums—instead of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa—while living rather well on his share of the offerings to Lord Hanuman for only two Tuesdays in a full year. The founding priest's heirs had so multiplied over the years that the 'Red Priest of India', as the lively gent was nicknamed by the regulars of Coffee House, could get to perform puja, but only on do mangalbaars, which was enough to sustain him and his family round the year. Meanwhile, the priests had turned street-smart, having learnt to create additional avenues of income thanks to the huge numbers coming to pay obeisance to the gods. Hawkers of various temple-related stuff, including flowers and wood and stone figures and figurines of gods and goddesses, could ply their business after paying hefty fees to the priests or the trusts controlled by them. In the case of the Kalkaji temple, warring priests generated substantial additional incomes hiring out space for hoardings strategically placed, which no devotee could miss. These sought to satiate consumerist rather than the spiritual appetite of the devotees. Indeed, next time if you are driving past the MEA Hostel on KG Marg, notice the mosque on the circular traffic island. Over the years, it has been overshadowed by a chemist shop and an office, over which loom the two big billboards let out for hefty rents. At least for some in the priestly class, religion is essentially commerce.

donations

It’s God’s Gold, Sorry

The Godforsaken Country