Tirumala temple revokes move to bar pilgrim entry for 6 days
HYDERABAD: Tirupati’s Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple has called off a decision to close the shrine to devotees during the planned six-day closure from August 11 for a once-in-12-years ritual cleansing after the intervention of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devesthanam (TTD) Board reversed its July 14 decision after Naidu advised it to make sure that devotees who throng the world’s richest Hindu temple aren’t affected, its chairman Putta Sudhakara Yadav said. Naidu asked the TTD officials to allow as many pilgrims as possible without any disruption of the ritual.
Addressing a press conference along with TTD executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal at Tirumala, Yadav said the board had decided to allow a few thousand devotees at prescribed times daily during the ritual period .
The mid-august period attracts about 100,000 pilgrims daily and the temple management cannot facilitate ‘darshan’ for all during the ritual period, temple officials said.
Naidu asked the TTD, which administers the temple, to curtail the number of devotees during the Ashta Bandhana Balalaya Maha Samprokshanam ceremony.
“It is not fair on the part of the TTD Trust Board to expect the devotees to wait for days together” to enter the shrine, a person in Naidu’s office quoted him as saying.
After a meeting on Saturday, the TTD said pilgrims would not be allowed darshan of the deity during the six-day ritual. It was to be the first proposed closure of the temple.
Hindu seer Swamy Swaroopanandendra Saraswati of Sri Sarada Peetham said he suspected a conspiracy behind the closure.
“As per the Agama (prescribed in Hindu scriptures for the procedures to be followed in temples on different occasions) rules, devotees can witness the temple cleansing process and have the darshan of the presiding deity. The TTD authorities should have consulted heads of various Hindu mutts and peethams (religious seats),” he said in a statement.
Opposition YSR Congress Party lawmaker RK Roja alleged that the trust’s decision lent credence to the suspicion by retired priest AV Ramana Deekshitulu that the au- thorities had spirited away treasure hidden under the temple in December 2017 on the pretext of repair works in its kitchen.