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A man who accidentally dropped his iPhone into a hundial, or offering box, at a Tamil Nadu temple may not be able to get it back.
The Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department rejected his request, stating that the phone is now considered property of the temple.
Citing the Hundial Facility, Safeguarding and Accounting Rules, 1975, an official explained that anything deposited in a hundial is considered a donation and cannot be returned to its owner. “All the offerings made in the hundials belong to the temple and cannot be recovered,” the official told news agency PTI.
The temple authorities have confirmed that the iPhone thrown into the sinkhole has been treated as an offering, allowing only the recovery of its data.
Dinesh, the owner of the phone, sought help from officials of the Sri Kandaswamy temple in Thiruporur, located in Chengalpattu district, to recover his device. However, his request was denied by the temple administration.
PK Sekar Babu, Minister of the Department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, clarified the decision and said, “Everything deposited in the offering box, even if done inadvertently, becomes part of God’s account.”
“As per the practices and traditions of the temples, any offering made to the hundial goes directly to the account of the deity of that temple. The rules do not allow the administration to return the offerings to the devotees,” Babu told reporters.
He added that he would consult with department officials to explore whether some form of compensation could be provided to the devotee.
The minister made these remarks while inspecting the construction of the Arulmigu Mariamman temple in Madhavaram and supervising the renovation of a temple tank associated with the Arulmigu Kailasanathar temple in Venugopal Nagar.
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred in the state.
In May 2023, a devotee named S. Sangeetha from Alappuzha, Kerala, accidentally dropped her 1.75 sovereign gold chain into the hundial of the Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple in Palani. The chain slid into the offering box as she removed a tulasi garland she wore around her neck to make an offering.
Taking into account her financial situation and verifying through CCTV footage that the incident was unintentional, the temple board chairman personally purchased a new gold chain of equivalent value and handed it over to her.
