With eye on jobs as purohits ahead of Ram Temple opening, UP students show interest in courses on Hindu rituals

Ahead of Mahakumbh 2025, for which a record number of pilgrims are expected to arrive in Prayagraj, the UP government plans to develop a corridor and revamp several temples. (Special arrangement)

“So far, the only government job for us was the post of Dharm Guru (religious teacher) in the Army, but now we are hopeful that upcoming temples like the Ram Temple will also hire trained youths who have a diploma in Karmakand,” he told The Indian Express. He added that seven of his friends and he took admission to the course in order to find work at the Ram Temple.

The Karmakand course at Nehru Gram Bharati was started in 2012 with just 20 seats. According to Dev Narayan Pathak, the head of Sanskrit department at Nehru Gram Bharati, the number of seats were doubled to 120 in the previous academic session owing to an increase in applications. The 2023-24 session has already received 180 applications so far. The last academic session received 165 applications and the 2021-22 session 140 applications.

Prem Tripathi (18), who completed his class 12 this year in the Science stream from a school in Auraiya district, has taken admission in Oriental Studies at the Sanskrit department of Lucknow University to learn Sanskrit as well as Karmakand.

He said he is interested in pursuing research in Sanskrit, but will look for work as a purohit at a prominent temple like Ayodhya’s Ram Temple if he is unable to achieve that goal. Tripathi’s classmate, 17-year-old Sampoornand Pandey from Basti district, said he decided to join the course so that he could join the Army as a Dharm Guru, and if not, then become a purohit.

The Department of Veda at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, had started a diploma course in Karmakand in 2010 with just 10 seats. At that time, it had received just nine applications for admission. At present, the department has increased the number of seats to 35. Since the past three years, it has been receiving over 100 applications from students interested in becoming purohits, Dharm Guru and learning about karmakand. Looking at this increase in interest, the department has requested the university administration to add more seats to the course.

Increased interest in these courses comes amid a rising number of opportunities for those who work as purohits. For instance, before the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor in Varanasi — a project that connects the Kashi Vishwanath Temple with various ghats along the Ganga — in December 2021, the annual footfall of tourists in Varanasi was 1 crore. Since then, according to the UP government, the annual tourist footfall has increased to 12 crore.

“Expecting that surge, around 200 new priests started working along the corridor in 2021 as volunteers. They perform rituals for devotees outside the sanctum sanctorum,” said Sunil Kumar Verma, chief executive officer of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust. Another trust functionary said that though these volunteers are not paid a salary, they get dakshina (offerings) for performing various rituals and some of them end up earning more than the purohits who get a salary. The functionary said that most of these volunteers are youths who speak English and are trained in Karmakand.

Nehru Gram Bharati’s Pathak said several students who took admission there have told him that they had done so in order to get a job at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya or other prominent temples.

He said that students could also find work in different parts of Ayodhya, “where footfall of devotees is going to increase after the opening of the Ram Temple next year”. According to Pathak, the number of seats in the Karmakand diploma course had been doubled to 120 last year following a surge in applications.

In the Sanskrit undergraduate course at Lucknow University, Karmakand was introduced as a vocational course under the National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020-21. Under this, students learn Karmakand in the second semester and get training to become an archak (priest) in the fourth semester.

“In the past, the number of admissions against available seats was very low. Last year, only 12 students applied for admission. However, this year, 20 applications have been received so far and the admission process is still underway,” said Prerna Mathur, coordinator of Oriental Studies in Sanskrit at Lucknow University.

“Most students join the course to get the Dharm Guru post in the Army. But several students have now started working as priests at prominent temples in Lucknow and Kanpur,” Mathur said.

Meanwhile, the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, a trust set up by the Centre to build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, plans to constitute a committee to decide the eligibility criteria for new priests and to train them.

“If the new priests have done any course in Karmakand, the committee will only have to train them a little. Since devotees from across the world and from different languages and cultures will come here, we will need trained priests who can interact with all types of people,” said a member of the trust.

The member added that when the Ram Temple opens, the footfall of devotees will also increase at Hanuman Garhi and other temples in the city, and more priests will be required.

There are also other projects underway in the state to boost religious tourism. The Vindhya Corridor, built around the Vindhyachal Temple in Mirzapur, and the Nath Nagri Corridor in Bareilly are two prominent examples. According to officials, these projects will further increase the demand for priests.

Moreover, ahead of Mahakumbh 2025, for which a record number of pilgrims are expected to arrive in Prayagraj, the UP government plans to develop a corridor and revamp several temples.