A Brief History of The Bhavani Charitable Trust (BCT) and Shrine
Bhavani Hanuman Temple and Charitable Trust is the Hindu Temple located at 460 Wartman Road, Collegeville, PA 19426.
Bhavani Charitable Trust is a non-profit organization, donations are tax deductible under IRS code 501 C3 (EIN 23-22-09536). BCT was formed in 1982 to meet the community’s growing need for a religious, spiritual and cultural activities in Collegeville, Limerick, Royersford, Audubon, Eagleville, Norristown, King of Prussia, Pottstown area.
BCT shrine represent a dream of Dr. Swatantra Kumar Pidara (1939 – 2021) from his childhood growing up during 1940s in Mathura, U.P. India. Dr. Pidara moved to the USA in 1968. In 1977, he began to perform pujas, kathas and sanskaras to help the Hindu community with no demand money made for these services, but any contributions received were kept separately towards his dream of a village temple for the community service. Finally, in 1982, he created BCT a non-profit trust and bought 3.2 acres of land for the shrine without demanding money from any source and then slowly during the years 1993 – 2007, Mata Bhavani and Shri Hanuman ji idols were installed in the present structure of the shrine.