Madras Regulation VII of 1817 on temple endowments

The Madras government passed Regulation VII of 1817, the first explicit Company legislation on the management of temple endowments.

In 1817 the Madras government enacted Regulation VII, the first explicit English legislation dealing with the management of Hindu temples and their endowments. It placed oversight of temple affairs with the Board of Revenue, acting through the district collectors. The Board read the regulation as giving it only a supervisory role, and in 1821 it told the Collector of Madras to stop interfering in the Madras temples. The Company ended its patronage of native religious institutions in 1842, and state control returned only with the Hindu Religious Endowments Act of the 1920s.

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