Thiruchendur Murugan Temple – Temple Administration
From the earliest times the control of the District
authorities extended to all details connected with the temples, the collection
of their revenues, the management of their lands, the regulation of their daily
expenses and periodical festivals, the maintenance of their fabric, in fact, to
every item of receipt and expenditure.
About 1840 Government resolved to withdraw from the
management of the temple, a decision which, it appears, was received with
general dissatisfaction. According to the Collector's report, the people
asserted that "the relinquishment of Government control would be speedily
followed by the destruction of the institutions themselves."
In 1841 the 350 temples then under Government management
were divided into two classes "Village temples" and "District
temples". The former were handed over to village committees; and of the
latter, which numbered nine altogether, seven were handed over to trustees and two,
the Nanguneri and Tirukkurungudi temples to jeers. The management of the lands
belonging to the temple was handed over to their committees or trustees in
1849.
In 1864 two District Committees, one for Saivite and the
other for Vaishnavite temples, were created; and, with the exception of the
Nanguneri and Tirukkurungudi temples which still continued under the control of
their Jeers, those temples which until 1841 had been under Government
management were handed over to the newly formed committees. By the passing of
the Madras Act II of 1927 the administrative control of all the Hindu temples
and their endowments in the presidency passed to a Board of Commissioners for
Hindu Religious Endowments constituted by the Act.
Before the provisions of the Act could be applied,
Subrahmanya Swami Devasthanam was governed by a Scheme of Administration framed
in OS. 4 of 1929 of the District Court, Tirunelveli. The Tirunelveli District
Saiva Temple Committee, under whose management it had remained since 1864, was
further abolished in 1938.
The court scheme as further notified to be subject to
provisions of Chapter VI-A of the Act of 1927 and by which the temple came to
be administered by a Trustee assisted by a Superintendent until 1939, and later
still under G.O. No. Mis. 4448 P.H. dated 12 December 1938 and Board's Order
No. 1264 dated 6 March 1939 by an Executive Officer as responsible for its
administration. The Administration of the temples is further strengthened since
an Advisory Board of Members is constituted by the Hindu Religious Endowments
Board, and responsible to it.
For more
information contact Thiruchendur Devasthanam Joint Commissioner / Executive
Officer:
Joint Commissioner/Executive Officer
Arulmigu Subramanyaswamy Temple,
Thiruchendur - 628 215
Phone: 04639-242221,
04639-242270, 04639-242271