Gold At ₹1.5L Per 10g, Devotees At All-Time High: How Siddhivinayak Earned Record ₹182 Cr In FY26

Last Updated:April 03, 2026, 09:45 IST

The trust hasn't released a segment-wise revenue breakdown — but with gold at historic highs, precious metal offerings and auctions are hard to overlook as a key driver.

Gold is at historic highs, devotee footfalls are climbing, and Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak temple has just declared its richest year ever — Rs 182 crore in FY 2025-26, a 35% jump over last year. But what’s really behind the record? Faith, footfalls, or soaring gold prices? Probably all three.

How Big Is This Number — Really?

Prabhadevi’s Siddhivinayak temple, Mumbai’s most visited and arguably most powerful Ganpati shrine, declared a record revenue of Rs 182 crore for FY 2025-26, according to The Times of India.

To put that in perspective: the trust had budgeted for Rs 155 crore. The actual figure came in Rs 27 crore higher — a 35% jump over the Rs 133 crore earned in FY 2024-25, which was itself a record at the time

What Is Driving The Revenue Surge?

The trust hasn’t published a detailed revenue breakdown for this year — no segment-wise split between cash donations, puja bookings, prasad sales and precious metal offerings. But the trajectory of gold and silver is hard to ignore.

Gold prices in India have surged dramatically over the past two years, crossing Rs 90,000 per 10 grams in 2025.

Siddhivinayak’s revenue is generated through multiple sources, including donation boxes, puja offerings, prasad and laddoo sales, online donations, and gold and silver offerings — and despite rising prices of gold, the gold and silver counters have witnessed a surge in auctioned items.

This pattern showed up strikingly in FY 2024-25’s Gudhi Padwa auction: the temple achieved record earnings of Rs 1.33 crore from the auction of gold and silver on Gudhi Padwa, compared to Rs 75 lakh during the previous year’s Gudhi Padwa — nearly double in a single year.

If gold and silver auctions nearly doubled year-on-year at Gudhi Padwa alone, the cumulative impact on the full year’s revenue is significant.

Treasurer Acharya Pawan Kumar Tripathi told TOI: “The number of followers has grown as have the offerings. People have faith that every rupee donated to Siddhivinayak will be used for social welfare."

What Else Contributes To The Kitty?

The temple earns from donations and the sale of laddoo and coconut barfi as prasad, and also auctions jewellery and other precious items donated by devotees.

On average, around 10,000 laddoos are distributed daily to devotees visiting the temple. That’s a volume few temples in India can match — and the prasad counter alone is a meaningful revenue line.

Where Does The Money Go?

This is where Siddhivinayak’s wealth becomes genuinely meaningful for ordinary Mumbaikars. According to The Times of India, the trust’s budget for FY 2026-27 earmarks Rs 36 crore for financial assistance to poor patients, Rs 24 crore for basic amenities in government hospitals, and Rs 2.6 crore through its dialysis centre.

A Rs 1 crore scholarship fund will support children of farmers whose breadwinners have died by suicide.

The government has also approved a scheme — the Shri Siddhivinayak Bhagyalakshmi Yojana — under which baby girls born in Maharashtra’s government hospitals on March 8 (International Women’s Day) will receive a fixed deposit of Rs 10,000 in their mother’s bank account. The trust estimates this will amount to Rs 2 crore annually.

How Does Siddhivinayak’s Wealth Compare to India’s Richest Temple?

Siddhivinayak’s Rs 182 crore annual revenue is impressive — but it exists in a different league entirely from the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, widely considered the wealthiest religious site on earth.

• Padmanabhaswamy Temple’s estimated assets exceed Rs 1.2 lakh crore (US$20 billion), with treasures from Vault A alone worth around Rs 1 lakh crore. Some local reports say this includes gold idols, Roman and Napoleonic-era coins, and gem-encrusted jewellery. Vault B remains unopened under a Supreme Court order.

• Padmanabhaswamy’s annual revenue is estimated at around Rs 500 crore — nearly three times Siddhivinayak’s record Rs 182 crore.

• The comparison, however, is somewhat apples-to-oranges. Padmanabhaswamy’s wealth is largely ancestral treasure accumulated over centuries and held in underground vaults. Siddhivinayak’s revenue is entirely donation-driven — cash, gold offerings, prasad sales, puja bookings — making it a more accurate reflection of active, living devotion.

• Siddhivinayak is also a far younger institution. The temple was originally built in 1801, while Padmanabhaswamy’s origins stretch back over a thousand years.

• What makes Siddhivinayak’s numbers striking is the rate of growth — from Rs 114 crore in FY23-24 to Rs 133 crore to now Rs 182 crore — a near 60% rise in just two years, driven by rising gold prices, growing footfalls and expanding online donations.

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