India is a land of temples. There are some wonderful temples in this country because of the ancient cultural heritage. You have some ancient temples in the southern part of India. One of them is the Tirupati temple. It is also called the Venkateshwara temple and is located in the Tirumala hill town. It is located in the district Chittor of Andra Pradesh, the state of India. The Tirumala hill has seven peaks and since the temple is located on the seventh peak, it is called "temple of seven hills". The deity inside the temple is of lord Venkateshwara, a Hindu god form of Vishnu.
Tirupati Temple - A Rich Temple
You can have Tirupati darshan along with the family or friends. This temple is second richest [wealth exceeding 50000 crore Indian rupees] after the Padmanabaswamy temple of Kerala. It is one of the most visited places of worship in the world and the annual number of pilgrims visiting the temple touches 40 million. On special occasions, the number of pilgrims coming to the temple in a single day can touch 500000. This makes it one of the most visited holy places in world. This temple is based on the Dravidian architecture style.
The temple deities
Dhruva beram
This is the stone deity belonging to lord Venkateshwara. It is considered to be main energy source in the temple.
Bhoga Srinivasa
This is an important deity in the temple presented by the Pallavi queen in the year 614AD. It has never been removed from the temple since that time.
Ugra Srinivasa
This represents the anger of the lord. This deity is cleaned daily with turmeric and sandal wood paste.
Utsava Beram
This is a deity coming out to see people and is also called Malayappa.
Bali Beram
This is the presiding deity and looks after many affairs. The deity deals with economic and financial affairs.
The Tirupati temple is held in a high esteem by the Vaishnavi sect of south India.
Various activities in Tirupati temple
Prasadam
Laddu is one of the famous Prasadam given in the Tirupati temple and there is a copyright of the Laddu. No other person can prepare the same Laddu. There are other delicious prasadams available and these include tamarind rice, curd rice, vada and sweet pongal. You can have free meals daily and on the day of Thursday, food items are kept as navidayam for lord Venkateshwara.
Hair Tonsuring
There are many pilgrims who tonsure their hair in the premises of the temple as a mark of offering to the lord.
The story goes like this. Lord Venkateshwara has taken credit from Kubera for his marriage to Padmavati but could not pay him the money back completely. When the devotees pay money and gold in hundi, they are paying that debt and the lord blesses his devotees in this way multifold.
