Vantiga

The Chitrapur Math in Shirali, with its affiliated Maths and Temples spread out in the North and South Kanara (presently known as Uttara Kannada and Daskshina Kannada) Districts of Karnataka, serves all religious needs of our Community.

The overall administration, under the Guidance of our Revered Mathadhipathi His Holiness Sadyojat Shankarashram Swamiji, is looked after by a Standing Committee with a President to co-ordinate its work.

The Standing Committee is elected periodically in a Mahasabha (General Assembly) consisting of delegates from various local Sabhas (geographical clusters of Saraswat families).

In Shirali, the Math has an Office with a Manager controlling the staff in the Office, Kitchen, Security, Maintenance etc. Payments by devotees for religious services they seek the Math to perform on their behalf are collected here.

There are fully trained Priests to perform the Math's daily religious rituals and any specific religious services requested by the devotees at the Holy Feet of the Community's Supreme Deity, the Lord Bhavanishankar and other Hindu deities at the Math.

There is a school to train new generation of priests. At locations under its jurisdiction, the Math provides Guest-House facilities with free prasad bhojan (consecrated food) to visitors. The Math also does charity work in the form of running an Old Peoples Home, providing free basic medical facilities and free education up to secondary school level to the needy, and so on.

Every year, in April, a great festival called the Rathotsava (Chariot Festival) is celebrated at the Math attended by a congregation of Saraswat families from all over India. All this cannot be achieved without adequate funds. Although the Math has a small income in the form of payments received for religious services performed and rent from leased property; its running costs are enormous and can only be met by a substantial contribution coming from the Vantiga collected and forwarded to the Math by the local Sabhas.

In the past 50 years, the presence of our community in the U.K. has grown steadily with a strong bond between families maintained through regular social and religious functions, organised by informal or formal Associations.

With a significant increase in the number of families, the Saraswat Samaj (U.K.) was set up in 1989 with a formal structure (Constitution, Membership, Managing Committee etc.). For many years, before the Saraswat Samaj was established, the need to set up a Local Sabha in the U.K was not felt, firstly, because of the small number of families in the early years; secondly, because most of the families emigrating to the U.K. had maintained their arrangements for paying their Vantiga in India; more recently, however, a number of members expressed a desire to discontinue those arrangements and to start paying their Vantiga locally, through the Samaj.

Accordingly, the necessary formalities were completed with a clearance from the Standing Committee of the Math for the Samaj to collect the Vantiga from members and to remit the collected amount to reach the Math annually by 31 March (end of Financial Year). This process was started in the year 1999/2000, with a collection/remittance of £843 followed by £1,015 in 2000/2001. Some members have continued to maintain their arrangement in India.

Members who wish to pay their Vantiga in the U.K. have two options:

a) by Cheque or b) by Bank Standing Order