The circumstances of the world today are so different from what they were when all major religions traditions were incubated.
The Internet and other technologies could potentially affect religious groups — which seems to explain the logic behind online platform www.devaayanam.in and its relevance to devotees.
Envisions ecosystem
Devaayanam envisions an ecosystem for Hindu religious resources comprising a free website, a repository of temple literature, community blogs, religious products and services.
Kerala-based founders Sajeev Manayangath and Santhosh Poothankurissi say the cloud-based SaaS platform intends to essentially help temples ride out the crucial transition to the ‘virtual.’
Any temple can have its wesbite for free, Manayangath told BusinessLine . They need to merely send a mail or register at the site to set up their own.
Payments online
After due-diligence the website will be up in 1-2 days. All other services will be rolled out through these websites.
“Temples may choose to manage their site on their own or take our help. They can update activities and accept online bookings. No technology skills are needed for staff.”
Temples are also enabled to receive payments for puja and donation online. A centralised backend and related support make sure that all pujas are performed.
Devotees can use the same user-id/password for all listed temples. They also get monthy consolidated updates/mailers on all the temples on the platform.
Overall prosperity
Even fundraising activities can be mounted online. The Visitor Centre provides details on neighbourhood facilities such as restaurants, stay, cabs or clinics.
“We hope to help the businesses around the temples with this facility,” Manayangath said. The connect with devotees would help with the upkeep and overall prosperity of the temples.There are about one lakh-plus medium to large temples in India. More than 70 per ent of the domestic tourism is accounted for by religious tourism.
“We already have on our platform more than 30 temples spread across Palakkad, Thrissur, Kozhikkode and Kannur, and 1000 registered users. We have completed 5,000 pujas.”
Devaayanam is counting on revenue from advertisement and related services to operate the platform. “We want to reach out to temples outside Kerala. For this, we’re actively scouting for funds,” Manayangath said.
