For many devotees who live in Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Malaysia and America, arranging an ‘abhishekam’ or a special puja at Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here is just a click away. The official website of the temple offers devotees around the globe a range of pujas to be booked online.
“A few people book a puja ahead of their visit to Madurai and participate in it on the specified date. In the case of people who cannot visit the temple, we perform the puja and send the ‘prasadam’,” said N. Natarajan, Joint Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department and Executive Officer.
With 6,300 registered members, site traffic statistics available with officials indicate that most of the people using the services are from Mumbai, Delhi, China, the UAE, the UK and the USA.
Records indicate that 40 online bookings were made for pujas in September. “Many people living abroad book pujas for their parents or relatives living here and they come to see if they are performed,” said S. Shaji, a systems operator at the temple.
Officials further stated that the number of people making use of e-services was steadily increasing. From October 1 to 21, 102 bookings were made for pujas and abhishekams.
The temple had also sold tickets for the annual Chithirai festival through online bookings earlier this year.
“Nearly 4,000 people visited the website to see our live streaming of events such as Meenakshi Sundareswarar Tirukkalyanam,” Mr. Shaji noted. The temple authorities said that action would be initiated against private websites that offered such e-services at higher prices.
“Many new websites offer services to people, which include abhishekam and puja, in any temple in the country at exorbitant prices. They are not authorised and we have received complaints that they are charging well above what is charged by the temple,” said Mr. Natarajan.
“We will soon take action against these websites and hope that there is more awareness among people to only use facilities offered by the temple’s official website,” he added.
