Sri Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam

Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Temple is one of the famous Hindu temple of South India. Lord Venkateshwara (a form of Lord Vishnu) also known as Balaji, Govinda and Srinivasa is worshiped in this temple. Balaji Temple is located on the seventh peak of Venkatadri hill also known as Venkatachala or Venkata Hill, hence it is also called as the “Temple of Seven Hills”. The Tirumala Hill comprises seven peaks, representing the seven heads of Adisesha (king of serpent) hence the place is known as Seshachalam. The names of the seven peaks are as follows Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrushabhadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri. The temple lies on the southern banks of Sri Swami Pushkarini, a holy water tank. The main deity of the lord Srinivasa is in the main sanctum (Garbha Gruha) beneath a gold plated dome Ananda Nilaya Divya Vimanam also known as Vimana Gopuram.

1. UshaKala — worship should start and finish before sunrise
2. Prathakala — worship should start after sunrise and finish before noon
3. Madhyanika — worship should start and finish at noon
4. Aparahana — worship should start when the sun starts to descend
5. SandhyaKala — worship should start and finish around the sunset
6. Ardharatri — worship should start after the horizon is completely dark

The temple is the most-visited place of worship in the world and the richest pilgrimage center, after the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The reason for this is devotees offer money and gold to Venkateshwara Hundi (Donation Pot) as a token of their love towards lord and also to relieve the lord from the commitment of paying back the loan taken by him from Kubera. As per legend it is believed as Srinivasa had taken loan from Kubera for his marriage with Padmavathi.
Temple offers world famous Tirupati Laddu as prasadam to all devotees and the Trust has taken Geographical Indication of Laddu prasaddam, hence, no one can prepare the same Laddu.
Tirumala, Tiru means ‘Holy’ or ‘Sacred’ and mala means hills/mountain. Tirumala hills are located in Tirupati in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. It is around 600 km (370 mi) from Hyderabad, 138 km (86 mi) from Chennai and 291 km (181 mi) from Bangalore.