ThiruvEnkaDa (Thiruppathi) divya dEsamPart 1. Origin, history and unique features of the temple

SuprabhAtham:

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`ǒƣæ��� �� ȡ�[� �� � [å� Ȳ��Ȱ�� ȡǑƹ� �ू ् (uttiSTha naraSArdUla kartavyam daivamAhnikam)

Meaning: “Oh, the darling son of KausalyA, dawn has arrived. Please wake up, Ohtiger among men, and you have the daily rituals to be performed to propitiate thegods”

This is how Sage ViswAmitra woke up his ward Rama at dawn in the forest to exhortRama to perform the daily human duties (ablution and oblation). These two lines fromValmiki RamayaNam were used as the starting lines for Sri VenkaTEsa SuprabhAtham(29 slOkhams) composed by PrativAdi Bhayankaram aNNangarAcAryAr (ca 1500 CE)per the decree of his guru MaNavALa MAmunigaL. The SuprabhAtham (literally su+prabhAtham = “good morning”) is recited every morning at the sayana maNTapam(slumber hall) at Thiruppathi temple to “wake up” Lord VenkaTEswara. It consists offour parts with a total of 70 slOkhams consisting of SuprabhAtham (29), Stotram (11),Prapatti (16), and MangaLAsAsanam (14). SuprabhAtham is recited every day at dawn atTiruppathi except during the mArghazhi month (Dec 15-Jan 15) when ANDAL’stiruppAvai is recited in its time slot.(Please visit: http://www.mypurohith.com/Rituals/Suprabhatam.asp for the complete textin Roman script and meaning for the full 70 slOkhams).

Location: ThiruvEnkaDa divya dEsam, one of the 108 divya dEsams, comprises a clusterof three temples—the hill temple at Tirumala for Lord SrInivAsa, the GovindarAjaPerumAL temple at Tiruppathi (foothills), near the railway station, and GoddessPadmAvati temple at TiruccAnUr, 3 kilometers away from Tiruppathi. All the threetemples are located in the Eastern Ghats (the mountain range that runs along southeasternIndia) range known as the Seven Hills. The seven hills are named as: SEshAdri, neelAdri,

GaruDAdri, anjanAdri, VrishabAdri, nArAyaNAdri, and VenkaTAdri. Tiruppathi town isin ChittUr district of Andhra Pradesh (200 kilometers from Chennai). The Tirumala hilltemple is 15 kilometers away from Tiruppathi reachable through a picturesque mountainroad. The hill temple is said to have been consecrated by Sri RAmAnujar (founder of theVaishNavism sect) in 1130 CE. Since the temple is located on the VenkaTAdri orVenkaTAcalam hill (Adri and acalam mean mountain or hill in Sanskrit) the Lord isknown as VenkaTEswara or VenkaTAcalapathi. He is also known as SrinivAsa orBAlAji.

History: The actual inception date of the temple is not known precisely. SilappadikAram, theancient Thamizh classic (ca 2nd century CE), mentions the holy hills as “neDiyOn kunRam”(the hill of the great Lord Vishnu) and thiruvEngaDam as the northern frontier of the Thamizhcountry. Literature dating to the Mauryan (4th century BCE) and Gupta periods (5-7th centuriesCE) refer to the region as “Adi VarAha kshEtram” (the ancient VarAha site) meaning the thirdavatAram of Lord Vishnu. ThoNDaimAn, a PallavA king, is believed to have built the earlyversion of this temple around 5th-6th century CE. The VaishNava saints (AzhwArs) of theperiod 6th-9th centuries CE have sung about the Lord of thiruvEngaDam in their pAsurams.Several royal dynasties including the PallavA, sOzha, Hoysala, and the Vijayanagara empires(from 6th through 16th centuries CE) also made additions and provided the temple with variousgifts such as gold, ornaments, land, and other endowments. The Thamizh poet Kamban (ca10th century CE) in his celebrated KambarAmAyaNam refers to the ThiruvEngaDam hills andmentions that the truth enshrined in the vEdAs is manifested as the Lord in those hills.

After the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire, Maratha rulers and rulers from Mysoresupported the temple. The East India Company, after administering the temple for severalyears, transferred the administration in 1843 to native religious institutions. In 1933 theTirumala Tiruppathi Devasthanams (TTD) was established as the primal organization to runthe temple complex. Currently it is operated by a board of trustees. The management has comeunder the control of the Andhra Pradesh government.

Origin of the temple: There are several legends associated with how the temple got locatedthere. According to VarAha purANam, the third avatar of Vishnu (Adi VarAha) appeared onthe western bank of the pond in the hills while Vishnu in the form of VenkatEswara establishedon the southern bank. It is said that the sage Brigu kicked Lord Vishnu in His chest angeredover being ignored by the Lord. Goddess Lakshmi got offended and left VaikuNTham andwent to the nether world to do penance and finally reappeared at the foothills of Tirumala

seated on a lotus. That is where She has her abode now in TiruccAnUr as PadmAvati or alarmEl mangai (literally the maiden on the lotus flower). Lord Vishnu was grieved over thedeparture of His consort and He too left VaikuNTham and took residence in an anthill on theVenkaTAdri. A cow used to feed milk to the Lord at the anthill. When the cowherd watchingthis threw his ax at the cow the Lord protected the cow by rising from the anthill but got hurt.Thereupon the cowherd fell and died on the spot. Later the sOzha king of the region got toknow this event. He was cursed by the Lord for the delinquency of his cowherd but offered areversal of the curse when he would be reborn as a future king (Aksa Raja) and offer a crownto the Lord. In due course, when Aksa Raja was ruling the kingdom he was yearning for achild. While plowing the field as part of a yAgam, he found a female child in a lotus in theground. He took the child to his palace, named her PadmAvati, and reared her. When she cameof age the king married her to the Lord. At the wedding the king offered a gold crown to theLord. (Those who are interested in further details can visit:www.prapatti.com/slokas/english/DivyaDeshams.pdf and read the whole story—pages 99-100). The earliest temple was constructed by the king ThoNDaimAn who was a simple devoteein his previous birth and was ordained by the Lord to become a future king and build a temple.There are several versions of the hoary events as is common with mythology.See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Tirumala#Goddess_Padmavati for further details.Sri Venkatachala Mahatyam is the most commonly accepted legend and provides the historythrough the different eons.

Temple features:

As mentioned earlier the temple complex in Tiruppathi consists of three temples. They are asfollows: Tirumala (on the hill), Keezh Tiruppathi (at the foothills), and TiruccAnUr (alamElumangApuram) also at the foothills.Tirumala: The sanctum sanctorum is a 12 foot square chamber housing Lord Srinivasa in thestanding posture facing east. He is also known variously as TiruvEngaDamudaiyAn,VenkaTAcalapathi, and BAlAji. The golden crown structure over the sanctum is called Anandanilaya vimAnam. This 3-tiered vimAnam is 38 feet high. The festival or processional idol(utsavar) is called Malayappan or KalyANa VenkatEswara. This utsavar idol is flanked by His

consorts Sri dEvi and BhU dEvi. In front of the sanctum is the famous sayana maNTapamwhere the SuprabhAtham is recited at dawn everyday.

The pond associated with the temple is called SwAmi PushkaraNi. There is also a lake nearbycalled kOnEri. Accordingly the Lord is called kOnEri rAyaDu vADu (Lord of the KOnEriLake). Within a couple of miles there is a waterfall and a river (AkAsa Ganga, PApavinAsini,and SwarNamukhi). There is no separate shrine for the goddess at the Tirumala hill temple.However, the Lord Srinivasa (the name means “one within whom goddess Lakshmi lives”) hasa gold pendant engraved with goddess Lakshmi adorning His chest. The Lord here has beeneulogized by 10 of the 12 AzhwArs in about 202 verses (PAsurams).Keezh Tiruppathi: At the foothills the temple houses Lord GovindarAja perumAL(considered to be the older brother of Lord Srinivasa). He is found in a reclining posture on aserpent bed (bhujanga sayanam) facing east. His consort is called PuNDarIka vallit tAyAr.TiruccAnUr: This temple is dedicated to goddess PadmAvati, also known as alar mEl mangai.The goddess is seen in a sitting posture facing east. There is a processional idol (utsavavigraham) of Lord Srinivasa in the sanctum sanctorum

Festivals:

Everyday is a festival day at Tiruppathi. However, the annual BrahmOtsavams during theThamizh month of puraTTAsi (Sept-Oct) are celebrated with great pomp and pageantry.According to VarAha and BrahmANDa purANAs, Lord Brahma himself instituted the 9-dayfestival in honor of Lord VenkatEswara. On each day during the festival the processionaldeities are taken out in the morning and afternoon trips on decorated mounts accompanied byVedic chants and devotional music. On the fifth day the Lord rides on His principal vehicle,GaruDa (the celestial eagle). On the eighth day it is rathOtsavam. The processional deity andHis consorts are placed in a chariot which is pulled along the four main streets of the hill. Onthe eleventh day the Lord is taken to the Swami PushkaraNi and dipped in the water---a ritualbath.

Other festivals include VaikuNTha EkAdasi, Rama Navami, and JanmAshTami. The springfestival (VasanthOtsavam) is conducted during March-April, and Rathasaptami is celebratedduring February.

Epilogue: The Tiruppathi temple attracts 60,000 devotees every day, on average. The annualbudget of the temple was estimated at Rs. 10 billion ($200 million at current exchange rates).

The employees number about 14,000. All the money comes from donations—big and small—from devotees. The TTD organization uses the money to run the temple activities and variouscharitable activities, such as university, colleges, religious schools, orphanages, hospitals andseveral other institutions.

A discussion about the etymology of ThiruvEngaDam and Tiruppathi are in order here. Thename Tiruppathi is thought by some to have derived from tiru + pathi (goddess Lakshmi’sLord) which refers to Lord Vishnu and the town got the name of the Lord. Another schoolthinks the name derives from tiru + pathi meaning a sacred city (tiru = holy, sacred; pathi =city, town) thereby referring to the town as holy because of the temple. As forThiruvEngaDam, couple of interpretations is given. 1. In Thamizh vEm means bamboo andkaDam means forest. The hill slope being full of bamboo trees is thus called vEnkaDam orvEnkaTam and the honorific tiru has been added in front to denote the holiness of the place. 2.VEn or vem also means fire in Thamizh and kaDam means sin. Hence vEnkaDam woulddenote the incineration of sin. Devotees believed that if they visited that place their sins wouldbe destroyed. It is generally believed that the Thamizh word vEngaDam (mentioned in ancientThamizh literature dating back to 2000 or more years) got Sanskritized into venkaTa and thelord became known as venkaTa+Eswara = VenkatEswara.

Finally it is fitting to conclude this article with a slOkham from VarAha PurANam.

�ȮÌ� �ȡǑġ�  � Ȳ�è� ȡ� Ȳ�Ħƺ ȡÖ�Ȯ�� ȡǔè� �Ǒ� Ñ� �

�ȮÌ� �ȯ  �  � Ȫ��ȯ�Ȫ�� �� Ǘ� Ȫ�� �� ǒ�æ� Ǔ�

VenkaTAdri samam sthAnam brahmANDe nAsti kincanaVenkaTEsa samO dEvO na bhUtO na bhaviSyatiMeaning: There is no other place in the macrocosm (universe) that is on par withVenkaTAdri (Tirumala, VenkaTAcalam). There is no other god that is equal toVenkaTEsa nor will there ever be one.

Note: The names vEngaDam and vEnkaTam are used interchangeably. Likewise Tiruppati andThiruppathi also denote the same. Phonetics and conformity with international transliterationscheme for these two names are somewhat compromised in using such words throughout thisarticle.

The official website for TTDhttp://www.tirumala.org/maintemple_main.htm

For detailed pilgrimage accounts by individuals:http://srivaishnavam.com/divyadesam108/rv2003tour6.htmlhttp://srivaishnavam.com/divyadesam108/TIRUMALAI2.pdf

Sethuraman Subramanianmahakavi@nc.rr.com