Trichy  :

Just the mere strands of tonsured hair offered by devotees brought windfall to Samayapuram temple, the second highest revenue generating temple in the state. The temple authorities sold the tonsured hair for Rs 1.89 crore during an auction on Thursday.

Every year during the day of Ammavasai and Poochoriyal festival, many people swarm the temple. It is visited by about 3,000 devotees from various parts of the state on a daily basis. Devotees offer their hair in order to please the deity and wash away their sins and get one step closer to nirvana.

The temple collects all the tonsured hair and at the end of every year hold an auction, for which numerous bids are received, and these are not limited to Tamil Nadu, bids are made from various dealers from different parts of the country.

According to temple authorities, about 3,638kg of hair was auctioned off on Thursday and the tender was officially closed a few weeks ago.

A dealer from Vellore district bagged the tender for a sum of Rs 1,80,62,500. The temple started off the auctioning on a yearly basis but in recent months the amount of tonsured hair has increased and so the temple authorities have decided to hold an auction for the tender every two months.

This decision also gives an insight on the belief and devotion that people have for the Mariamman deity and the hoards of devotees that the temple pulls in on a regular basis. The funds will be used by the authorities for infrastructural changes in the temple. The money from the auction will be used to provide devotees better facilities and Rs 26 crore would be invested to build a cloak room with 96 bathrooms and a two-storied hair tonsure centre to handle the growing numbers of devotees.

The temple also plans to build solar plants at three locations inside the temple.

Solar plants would be implemented at the Ammavasai mandapam, Mudimandapam and near the guest house, said the temple authorities. Several projects are underway to improve the amenities of the temple.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy / TNN / October 10th, 2014