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STHS (South Texas Hindu Society)

South Texas Hindu Society (STHS) was formed in 2002 to build and operate Sri Venkateswara Temple, (built according to Aagama Sastra) in Corpus Christi. The aim is to provide religious services to the Hindu community of  South Texas. The founding Trustees of STHS are Dr. Subbarao Burra, Dr. Lalitha Janaki, Dr. Ramakrishna Mulukutla, Mr. Bhanukant Patel and Dr. M.P.Sudhakaran.

Building of SV Temple

During the initial discussions with the community, it was felt that in addition to building a temple having a community hall would be highly beneficial to the members of the Indian community. However, in view of the costs involved it was decided that during the first phase of this project, the temple would be built and the community hall would be added at a later date.

While the required paperwork for a non-profit organization was in progress, with the pro bono service of attorney Mr. Stewart Rice, the search for a suitable land was pursued. At the same time, an order for statues of Sri Ganapathy, Sri Venkateswara, Sri Padmavathi, Sri Andal, Lord Siva, Garuda and Dwarapaalakas was placed in India. At this point, the difficult task of fund-raising activities were started by Drs. Lalitha Janaki and Ramakrishna Mulukutla. The community’s response was excellent in terms of financial support as well as volunteer work.

The members of Board of Trustees considered several sites in and around Corpus Christi and finally selected a lot at 10401 McKinzie Lane as the suitable site because of accessibility, immediate availability of utilities and cost. After acquiring this lot, the ground br /eaking ceremony was performed on June 18, 2003 according to Vedic tradition.

As the project was in progress, request for additional deities was received from some of the members of the community. Accordingly, an additional order for Sri Subr /amanya Swamy and Navagrahas was placed in India. Apart from that, marble statues of Sri Radha Krishna, Sri Ram Parivar and Sri Dattatreya were also ordered. The Bhakta community requested for a marble statue of Sant Kabirji be included in the temple.

The traditional design for the temple was received from Tirupati in October 2003 and was reviewed and approved by several community members after minor modifications. The temple construction contract was awarded to EGH construction company of Corpus Christi. While the construction was in progress, deities were received from India and were stored temporarily in a storage facility.

The construction phase of this project would not have been successful without the significant volunteer contribution of Mr. Ajmer Kular, Mr. Govind Nadkarni, Mr. Bhaskar Patel, Mr. Harish Shah, Big M Pest Control company and Rock Engineering Group.

Mr. Vijay Kale, attorney from Houston, donated his services towards obtaining visas for the Priests.

STHS is deeply indebted to Sri Shambhavi Dhanamjaya Swamiji for sending Sri Parvathi statue and the yanthras for all of the deities of the Temple. The Mahakumbhabhishekam ceremonies were performed from May 24-28, 2005 under the distinguished guidance of Sri Sathyanarayanachari and his team. This event was well received by the community and several devotees attended the ceremony to receive the blessings of Lord Venkateswara.