Meaning of the terms Specific endowment and Kaltalai.

There were proceedings before the Hindu Religious Endowments Board for the determination of the question as to whether the endowments standing in the name of Sri Gunaseelam Prasanna Venkatachalapathi Perumal Purattasi Radhothsavam Samaradhanai, is a religious endowment as defined in the Act and whether it is a “specific endowment” attached to the said temple. The Board came to the conclusion that the entire endowment is religious in character and as such it is a religious endowment within the meaning of section 9(11-A) of the Act, namely, that it is a ‘‘specific endowment by which property or money is endowed for the performance of any specific service or charity in the temple. Against the decision of the Hindu Religious Endowment Board, the managers of the kattalai applied to the District Court of Tiruchirapalli under section 84 (2) of the Act for setting aside the order of the Board and the learned District Judge held that the endowment did not come within the definition of section 9(11-A) of the Act. The result was that the order of the Board was set aside.

The well-known Perumal temple at Gunaseelam on the banks of the Cauvery attracts worshippers from various parts of the district and during the annual car festival provision had to be made for the feeding and lodging of the large concourse of devotees who flock to this famous institution. Some years ago lands were purchased in the names of the managers of the kattalai to the extent of about 7 acres of wet lands from out of the surplus funds collected for the purpose of giving food and shelter to the Brahmins who congregate during the festival time. Since then, the entire income from the lands is utilised for the feeding and in fact, as stated by the learned District Judge, subscriptions are still levied since this income from the lands is insufficient to meet the expenditure. If any amount is left over after the feeding during the festival, a vanabhojanam is conducted every year in the month of Karthigai in the village of Kariamanickam.

The Board in the present appeal contests the decision of the District Judge that the kattalai is not a specific endowment and as such the Act would not apply. In the Tamil Lexicon published under the authority of the University of Madras, Vol. II, part I, at page 647 among the meanings given to the word “Kattalai” in the various contexts, so far as the word appertains to functions in the temple, the meaning given is as follows:

“Endowment for some special services in a temple, distinct from one for the general upkeep and maintenance of the institution”.

Another meaning given is:

“Provision for the free feeding of a certain number of pilgrims in a temple or mutt”.

Both these meanings emphasise the fact that the special service or the free feeding should be in a temple or a mutt. That is, if there is poor feeding in connection with a religious ceremony in a temple, but the same is conducted outside the precincts of a temple either in a private building or in a public building, it would not come according to the above meanings, within the meaning of the term “Kattalai.” Muttuswami Ayyar, J., in explaining the meaning of the word “Kattalai” in Vythilinga Pandora Sannadhi v. Somasundara Mudaliar1, says as follows:

“In ordinary parlance the term ‘Kattalai’ as applied to temple endowments, signifies a specific endowment for certain specific service or religious charity in the temple. Ardajama kattalai or endowment for midnight service is an instance of the former and Annadhana kattalai or an endowment for distributing gratis food to the poor is an example of the latter”.

The meaning of the word Kattalai was discussed in Vythilinga Pandara Sannadhi v. Ranganadha Mudaliar2, and Ramesam, J., observes that the word kattalai has got two distinct senses, a stricter and a looser sense and that in the stricter sense it is religious endowment the object of which was the performance of some kind of religious duty in the temple for the benefit of