Purohits now just a click away

City-based start-up has a database of over 500 south Indian priests. Book a day in advance

BENGALURU: A city-based start-up has a database of purohits from all parts of the country and offers packages for various occasions.

Started by a techie from Coimbatore who came to Bengaluru to pursue his career in IT, onlinepurohit.com lists Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Rajasthani and Assamee purohits.

They offer services for more than 50 pujas and homas like weddings, engagements, baby showers (seemantha), house warming (gruhapravesha), baby naming (namakarana), thread ceremony (upanayana) and birthdays.

“A couple of years back, I heard from my friend from Andhra Pradesh who was struggling to find a purohit of his region and caste in Bengaluru. That is when I realised that there is a demand for regional purohits in the cosmopolitan city,” says C Rajkumar, founder of onlinepurohit.com.

A BTech graduate in information technology, Rajkumar is religious and goes to temples regularly. “I frequently saw people enquiring about priests from their state and caste,” he adds.

Soon, Rajkumar quit his job to start the website. However, things weren’t as easy as he expected them to be. “For the first eight months, my team members and I met priests personally and got them registered free of cost,” he says, adding, “Now, we have more than 500 purohits from across south India.”

The priests are classified according to their region. “Once we get an order, we put the customer in touch with the appropriate purohit. We do not charge the customers. We get 15 to 20 per cent from what the purohit makes on the deal,” Rajkumar explains.

In a day, the website gets over 50 queries and 20 orders. The past month of Ashada has been slow for the business, as it is considered inauspicious.

The prices shown on the website are only fees of the purohits. Puja and homa material cost extra. “Customers must place orders at least one day prior to their event,” he says. 

The company plans to include astrology to the list of services. They also have plans to start an ecommerce platform to sell puja material.

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