Introduction and greatness of Tirumala: Om Namo Venkatesaya.
Tirupati and Tirumala are very important pilgrimage sites in India. Mythology says, “There is no place equal to Tirumala and there is no God equal to SriVenkateswara.” The people of India believe that the Supreme God Srimahavishnu descended and manifested in the form of a statue of Lord Srivenkateswara. Actually, there is no information on who made the statue. There are no records on the origin of the statue. It is strange that thousands of other temples in India around that place are destroyed by Muslim rulers, but this temple remained unharmed. The seven hills of Tirumala are located in the city of Tirupathi in the district of Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh (AP) State of INDIA. Andhra Pradesh is a state in southern India. There will be various modes of transportation to reach Tirupati from India.
Thousands of devotees walk up the hill to reach the temple. The number of devotees who visit it per day varies between 50,000 and 500,000. During holidays, holy festivals or weekends, the rush will be very high. People stand for hours to take a look (darshanam) at God. However, for the convenience of the devotees, the organizers, Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) offers various facilities making use of modern technical developments.
Holy places other than SriVenkateswara temple: In the hills there are various holy places like Papanasanam, Jabali teertham, Hathheeram Bavaji temple, Kodanda rama temple, many gardens, etc. Down the hill around Tirupathi are the sriPadmavathi devi temple in Alivelu mangapuram village, the Srilakshmi temple in Kariveerapuram temple and another Srivenkateswara temple in Srinivasa mangapuram.
Traditions: Under the new rule, devotees are supposed to enter the temple in traditional clothing. For the most part, people shave their heads as a sign of giving up their ego in front of God. Apart from this, people pray to God to help them overcome so many problems and, after receiving help, they go to the temple and offer donations. Many tasty and sacred snacks (Prasadams) are offered to the devotees in the temple, among which LADDU is very famous for its taste.