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Ganesh pandals fuel demand for priests
Temple priests, who normally wait endlessly for devotees to hire them to perform rituals, now have got their hands full, thanks to the ongoing Ganesh festival. In what can be described as an unprecedented trend, there are more than 40,000 pandals in the city and the demand for priests has increased.
Hyderabad: Temple priests, who normally wait endlessly for devotees to hire them to perform rituals, now have got their hands full, thanks to the ongoing Ganesh festival. In what can be described as an unprecedented trend, there are more than 40,000 pandals in the city and the demand for priests has increased.
According to the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi, there is in fact a shortage of priests and prayers at pandals and the rituals are stretching to late in the night.
Allama Prabhu, a pandit at Domalguda Ganesh pandal, said priests are performing pujas at 3 to 4 pandals which are in proximity with each other. “We do not have a fixed remuneration, sometimes we get more money. But now we are earning minimum Rs 700 to Rs 800 a day.
And after the Ganesh festival, pitru paksha and Dussehra festival will begin during this period also. We perform special pujas at various places.”
A priest at YMCA Ganesh pandal Bhanu said “Not only during the festivals, but after the festivals also there is a source of income as we go to conduct prayers in temples and houses when invited. Usually the pandal organisers pay around Rs 4,000 for 10 days.”
He went on to add, “This year is, of course, a good one as people in almost all localities have pandals. In some colonies where pandals had never been seen, have at least one.”
Being one of the largely celebrated festivals in Hyderabad, the Ganesh Chathurthi attracts large numbers of people from different communities and ages, and also people have a fancy to set up their own pandals by installing the idols and performing prayers.
Pandit Vigensh from Himayatnagar said “I perform puja in a temple and in evening I visit four to five Ganesh pandals during these 10 days.
There is nothing like fixed remuneration for us, it depends upon for how many days we perform puja in various pandals. During Dussehra festival and pitru paksha also we go to different places for performing puja.”
Ganesh Chathurthi starting from September 5 would conclude in the form of a mass immersion procession on September 15.
