Octogenarian beggar donates all her savings to charity initiatives

Ashwathamma shot into limelight after donating Rs 1 lakh

A newly wedded couple, stepping out from the sanctum sanctorum of Shree Rajarajeshwari Temple, made their way towards Magarandhaya shrine, to find a beggar woman sitting in a corner with the day’s alms spread before her in a plastic pouch.

The husband prostrated before the elderly woman seeking her blessings. While getting up, he gently nudged his young wife to follow suit, promising the bewildered woman of revealing everything about the ‘beggar-cum-donor’ woman while returning home.

Ashwathamma (80), in order to support herself, had taken up begging a decade ago.

But, she stands out from other beggars by practising thrift and donating all of her savings to charity initiatives of temples for the past four years.

A week ago, Ashwathamma shot into the limelight, when she donated Rs 1 lakh to the mass feeding programme of Shree Kshetra Polali, located about 20 km from Mangaluru.

“I had donated lakhs to temples like Sri Aiyappa Temple in Sabarimala and Anjaneya Temple in Saligrama,” she recollects.

A flower vendor said Ashwathamma had spent Rs 1.5 lakh on organising a traditional farewell ceremony for Sabarimala devotees in Polali.

But how does a woman living on alms amass so much money?

Ashwathamma says that she deposits the day’s collection with Venkatesh Navada, who owns Hotel Shri Vilas, just opposite the temple.

Navada, unwrapping a bundle, displays how the records of the daily collection are maintained meticulously.

Navada, praising Ashwathamma, says she leads a frugal lifestyle and never spends money on herself.

Every Monday she has only three coffees. She does not have a house and sleeps on the floor of the temple complex, he added.

Ashwathamma says her husband Niddoji Rao owned two touring theatre companies, Omkareshwari and Mahatma. The octogenarian begins to list places like Ranibennur where they had camped for over a year staging as many as three mythology-based dramas per day.

While camping in Kundapur, Niddoji passed away due to excessive drinking. She also lost her son, daughter and in-laws.

Ashwathamma recollected that her husband, before dying, had advised her to stop living for her children and to start helping others.

On why she does not give money to her grandchildren, Ashwathamma says they have grown strong wings and thus should stand on their own feet.

“It is hard to believe we have people like Ashatamma amongst us,” says the temple’s executive officer P Jayamma.

Temple’s managing trustee, Dr A Manjayya Shetty, says that her gesture had left him surprised.

“My world remains unchanged,” declares Ashwathamma after the pictures of her offering Rs 1 lakh to the temple had gone viral on social media.

“But, devotees do not treat me like before. They seek my blessings and offer wads of currencies, knowing well that it will be spent on a good cause,” she says with a smile.