Sri Venkateswara Temple is located in the hill town of Tirumala at Tirupati in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The Tirumala Hills are 853 metres (2,799 ft) above sea level. The Hills constitutes seven peaks, symbolizing the seven heads of Adisesha. The seven peaks are Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrushabhadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri. Venkateswara Temple lies on Venkatadri, the seventh peak. Therefore the temple is also called as “Temple of Seven Hills”.
The Temple is built in Dravidian architecture. The temple pursues Vaikhanasa Agama practice of worship. Venkateswara Temple is the richest temple in the world in terms of contribution and wealthiness. About 50,000 to 100,000 worshipers visited the temple every day.
There are over 433 festivals are being celebrated in a year. Venkateswara Temple is a paradise of Festivals every day, which meeting the title “Nitya Kalyanam Paccha Toranam”. The major festival is Sri Venkateswara Brahmotsavams, a nine-day festival, which is celebrated during October month.
It is approximately 435 km from Vijayawada, 571.9 km from Hyderabad, 138 km from Chennai, 291 km from Bangalore, and 781.2 km from Visakhapatnam.
History
Tirumala is known to have a history in the age of the Sangam Literature from 500 B.C. to 300 A.D. The source of the renowned enshrine in Tirupati can be observed in the literature of IIango Vadigal’s Silapadikarm and Satanar’s Manimeghalai Bear. Thondaiman, ruler of ancient Tondai Nadu first built the temple Gopuram and the Prakhara after picturing Lord Vishnu in a dream. Later, the Chola Dynasty (300 BC–1279) immensely amended the temple inorder to have a rich natural endowment.
Around the 4th century AD, the Kings of Pallav kingdom were the rulers of Tirumala. During the 5th century, the temple is known to have been brought to limelight by the Alvars or Vaishnava saints. Several kings belonging to different dynasties, like Cholas, Hoysalas and Vijaynagar rulers ruled Tirupati. All the kings played an significant role in the elaboration of the temple structure.
After the rejection of Vijayanagara Empire, kings from states such as Mysore and Gadwal worshiped as pilgrims. Maratha general Raghoji I Bhonsle (died 1755) visited the temple and established a permanent administration in the temple. In 1843, the administration of the Sri Venkateswara Temple and a number of enshrines was committed to Seva Dossji of the Hathiramji Mutt at Tirumala as Vicaranakarta for nearly a century until the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) was launched as a result of the TTD Act in 1932.
Today, TTD maintains the temples and their sub-shrines of temples brought under the first schedule two of the Act 20 of 1987 acted out by Andhra Pradesh Government and is administrated by a Board of Trustees selected by the state government.
Place to visit nearby temple: SV Museum, Sri Venkateswara National Park, Supatham Entrance, Narayanagiri Gardens, Chakra Tirtham Water Falls, etc..
Near station: Tirupati West Railway Station
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