Guide
How to make a book for your temple, mandal or satsang
Every temple committee, Ganesh mandal and satsang group has a story that lives in three elderly members and a cupboard of photographs. One organiser with a month can turn it into a book that two hundred families keep on their phones and print for the anniversary.
Short answer
Pick one of three books: a history, a bhajan collection with meanings, or a festival souvenir. Interview four to six elders, gather the photographs and the founding documents, and write ten to fifteen short chapters. Publish free to the community as EPUB and PDF, and print for the anniversary. Check the copyright of any bhajan written after about 1960.
Three books, pick one
- The history. How the temple, mandal or satsang began, who started it, the years of the building, the festivals that defined it, the people who held it together. Ten to fifteen chapters, one per era or one per person.
- The bhajan book with meanings. The thirty to fifty songs the group actually sings, each with the text in script and transliteration, the meaning in plain language, the composer, and a line about when the group sings it. The most used book any satsang can have.
- The festival souvenir. This year's Ganeshotsav or Durga Puja: the pandal, the volunteers, the programme, the sponsors, the story of the idol, the children's performances. A record of one year that families keep because their names and faces are in it.
Do not combine them. The history and the bhajan book are different objects with different readers; the souvenir is an annual. A group that makes the history this year can make the bhajan book next year.
Who does it
One organiser, not a committee. The committee approves; one person collects, writes and finishes. Give them a month, a deadline that is a real date on the calendar, and the authority to ask elders for an hour each.
Gathering the material
- Four to six interviews. The founders or their children, the longest-serving priest, the person who has organised the festival for twenty years, the woman who runs the kitchen. An hour each, recorded on a phone, with the same questions: how did it start, what nearly ended it, which year do you remember most, who do we owe.
- The documents. The founding minutes, the land papers, the first receipt book, the programme from the first festival. Photograph them; the dates in them settle arguments.
- The photographs. Ask every family for the five oldest pictures they have of the place. Note who took them and who is in them; credit both.
- The songs. For a bhajan book, record the group singing each one, so the version in the book is the group's version, not the internet's.
The copyright rules for bhajans, in one table
| Composition | Can you print the full text? |
|---|---|
| Historical composers: Tulsidas, Kabir, Meera, Surdas, Tyagaraja, Purandara Dasa, Narsinh Mehta and the like | Yes; centuries out of copyright |
| Traditional aartis and stotras of unknown or ancient authorship | Yes |
| A bhajan by a composer who died more than sixty years ago | Yes in India; check the term in your country |
| A bhajan by a living or recently deceased composer, or from a film | No, not without permission. Print the title, the composer and your reflection; leave the lyrics out or link to a licensed source |
| A translation or commentary from a published book | No, beyond short attributed quotation |
The Indian term is the author's life plus sixty years. When in doubt, ask the composer or their family; most are honoured to be asked and say yes.
Writing it so people read it
Short chapters, 600 to 1,000 words, each with a person or a year at its centre. Write in the language the community prays in; a Marathi mandal's book is in Marathi, with an English edition later for the members abroad. Use the elders' own words wherever you can, credited. Put the photographs with the chapters they belong to, captioned with names. A bhajan book is organised by occasion, morning aarti, festival, farewell, not alphabetically, because that is how the group looks for a song.
Front matter: a message from the committee, a dedication to the founders, a page of who did what. Back matter: a list of every volunteer and donor the records show, the year they served, and a request to send corrections. That page is the one families look for first.
Publishing to the community
Free, as an EPUB for phones and a PDF for printing, shared in the group's WhatsApp and on its page, with the cover image and one line. Print fifty to two hundred copies for the anniversary or the festival, priced at cost or for a donation to the fund. Put the organisation's name on the copyright page with a plain licence line: "Free to share within the community; please do not sell copies without the committee's permission." If the history is in the book, send a copy to the district library and the local newspaper; both will keep it.
Neubook Write plans the chapters from your brief, interviews you for the material, writes in the community's language and produces the EPUB, the print PDF and the cover. Scripture verses are fetched exactly; bhajan texts you paste in yourself.
Start a book, freeSources
- Copyright law of India: term and exceptions — Wikipedia
- Bhajan — Wikipedia
- Ganesh Chaturthi and the sarvajanik mandal tradition — Wikipedia
- Oral history — Wikipedia
Common questions
Who owns the book?
The temple or group, as an organisation, with the writers credited inside. Put the organisation on the copyright page and decide up front whether it is free to share (usually yes) and whether it may be printed and sold for the building fund.
Can we include the bhajans we sing?
Traditional compositions by Tulsidas, Meera, Kabir, Surdas, Tyagaraja, Purandara Dasa and other historical composers are out of copyright. Bhajans composed in the last sixty years or so, including many popular film-derived ones, are not: you need permission or you print the reference and your own reflection, not the lyrics.
What about photographs?
Ask each photographer or family for permission and credit them. A photograph of the deity in the temple is usually fine with the committee's blessing; photographs of people need their consent, especially children.
How long should it take?
One organiser, one month: two weeks of interviews and gathering, one week of writing, one week of review by the committee. Set the anniversary or festival as the deadline or it will never finish.
Free or paid?
Free to the community, always. Print copies can be sold or given for a donation to the building fund; say so plainly on the copyright page.