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Watch: Chennai temple decked with currency notes worth ₹4 lakh to mark Tamil New Year
The practice of meticulously decorating the temple with money happens every year to celebrate Puthandu.
Devotees were in for a surprise on Sunday when they walked into the Bala Vinaynagar Temple in Chennai’s Arumbakkam to see it decked with not flowers or lights but money.
Currency notes of denominations ranging from ₹200, ₹500 to ₹2000 adorned the walls and ceilings of the temple on the auspicious day of the Tamil New Year, according to ANI.
The cost to cover the interiors of the temple wall-to-wall with currency notes came up to approximately ₹4 lakh. The practice of meticulously decorating the temple with money happens every year to celebrate Puthandu. Whether the notes are real or fake is not known.
A 1.29 minute ANI video shows devotees walking through alleys lined with rupee notes. A Ganesha idol is mounted on top of a pedestal covered with notes and a chandelier made out of ₹200 and old ₹50 notes can also be seen on display.
Twitterati was critical of this practice and said it was not fair to decorate a temple with money when countless people went hungry every day.
Puthandu is the first day of the Tamil calendar and is observed with the solar cycle of the lunisolar Hindu calendar. It falls around April 14 each year. The day is celebrated as Vishu in Kerala and Bihu in Assam. It also marks the beginning of New Year in West Bengal, Punjab, Manipur and Odisha among other states.
