Bengaluru : The news of Yadadri temple in Nalgonda getting a makeover has once again spurred discussions on religious tourism and the revenue that each temple generates. While Telengana’s loss is Andhra’s gain, with Tirupati, which is among the biggest, most visited temples being in this territory, Telengana is trying to tilt things in its favour with Yadadri.

The attempt to revamp is to attract more pilgrims, since the temple sees peak pilgrim traffic of just around 20,000-25,000 visitors a day, on auspicious days, as compared to the almost one lakh a day to Tirumala. In revenue terms, it received approximately Rs 73.31 crore in 2014-15, against Tirumala’s Rs 2,262.52 crore. How does this compare to some of the other rich temples in India?
Thiruvananthapuram’s Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple was in the news for hidden treasures worth $20 billion. A court case revealed six ancient untouched temple vaults piled with gold and precious jewels that belonged to Travancore royalty, making it the richest temple.

When you look through the glass door, you see heaps of money being counted, and that’s a sight that has stayed with me from Tirupati. The second richest pilgrim centre in Andhra Pradesh sees more than 60,000 devotees every day and has treasures of more than Rs 650 crore.

Devotees say Shirdi Sai Baba magically answers all your prayers. Situated about 250 km from Mumbai in Maharashtra’s Shirdi village, it is the third richest temple in India and receives tens of thousands of devotees every day. The temple has gold and silver jewellery worth approximately Rs 32 crore and silver coins worth more than Rs 6 lakh. The temple gets donations worth Rs 350 crore every year.

The trek up to the temple of Mata Vaishno Devi, in Katra in Jammu & Kashmir, is a spiritual journey in itself, and now the pilgrims have it easy with the train helping them reach the nearest spot. This old temple has an income of Rs 500 crore every year.

You can’t miss this temple if you follow Bollywood stars regularly. Very often thronged by celebrities to seek blessings, the Siddhivinayak Lord Ganesha temple in Mumbai boasts of a 3.7 kg of gold plated dome.