Tirumala Venkateswara Temple is a well-known Hindu temple. It is located in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, southern India. This temple is near Tirupati. Tirumala Venkateswara Temple is dedicated to Hindu God Vishnu and the temple is quite famous place for today’s Hindus who believe in Lord Vishun.

This temple is located on Venkatadri (also called as Venkata or Venkatachala Hill) which is the seventh peak in seven hills of Tirumala. That is the reason it is also called as Temple of Seven Hills (In Sanskrit – Saptagiri). The main god of the temple, Lord Venkateswara has few others name also such as Vishnu, Balaji, Srinivasa and Govinda.

So far this temple was known as the richest pilgrimage place in India. But the new discovered richest temple in India is Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala. Tirumala Venkateswara Temple is also the most visited place in the world for the purpose of worship. Around 50,000 to 100, 000 pilgrims visit this place daily. Annual averages of pilgrims are 30 to 40 million. During special occasions or at the time of festival such as annual Brahmotsavam around 500,000 pilgrims gathered at this place and make it the most popular holy place in all over the world.

According to legend, this temple has statue of Lord Venkateswara and it said that it will be present at this place for whole period of Kali Yuga. Looking at the history of this temple, it is the highly repeated pilgrimage place in Tamilakkam. In the past when Tamil Nadu was Tondai Nadu country, this temple was still famous.

The Pandyan, Pallava, Chola and Vijayanagara dynasties have patronized this temple for over a millennium and it is the frontmost habitation of the 108 Divya Desams. The temple construction architecture style is Dravidian. The temple has been glorified in the Divya Prabandha which is the early medieval Tamil literature canon of the Alvar saints from the 6th-9th centuries CE.

History
 

For centuries this place is known as Venkatachala. It is said that Lord Brahma has given this name himself.

Venkatachala hill was in Dwaparayuga and was known with the name of Sheshachala or Sheshadri. The full description of Venkatachala hill is that ‘Ven’ means ‘Sin’ and ‘Kata’ means ‘Destroyed or burnt’ and the full meaning is that those who worship god at this temple will be free from his sins.

Those who don’t have wealth and vision can go to this place and will be free from sins and he will get peace and prosperity.

It believed that the Ruler of the ancient Thondaimandalam (presently known as Kanchipuram) Thondaiman has visualized Lord Vishnu in his dream and built the temple. Thondaiman built the Gopuram and the Prakhara and made the arrangement of regular prayers in the temple. After him, later on the Chola dynasty immensely improved the temple and his offerings were huge.

The Pallavas, Cholas and Vijayanagara pradhans were dedicated to Lord Venkateswara. Kings form different places such as Mysore and Gadwal have worshiped the god at this pilgrim and they offered valuables and ornaments.

The Maharastrian commander, Raghoji Bhonsle visited the Venkateswara temple and made the permanent arrangement of regular puja.

Tirupati temple has been mentioned as the Aadhi Varaha Kshetra in old literature which was written roughly around the post-Mauryan and early-Gupta era. The Puranas links this place with Lord Varaha which is also an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Varaha
temple is important in Tirupati and it is known as the older pilgrimage than Venkateswara. When one enters there, one can see Ranga Mandapam left side of the temple. Here main god, Sri Ranganatha Swamy of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple (Trichy) was protected for 60 years during Malik Kafur’s attacks in the 14th century.

‘Sri Bhashya’, the Lokaguru Shrimath Ramanuja declares the glory of Lord Venkateswara in his mangala sloka: “May my intellect assume the form of Bhakti in Srinivasa, the highest Reality, revealed in the Vedanta as the Lord who creates, protects and destroys the whole universe with sportive ease and who has taken a vow to protects all creatures who seek him.”

Many Alvars, Vaishnavacharyas and Saints have sings the glory of the Tirumala Hill with great devotion and were dedicated to lord Venkateswara.

These days the temple has been taken care by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) a Board of Trustees. The government of Andhra Pradesh has appointed an Executive Officer.

Generally around 75,000 pilgrims turns daily at this temple. Its annual budget was estimated Rs.10 billion in 2008. Millions of donations received from devotees.

TTD, the main organisation runs welfare of the temple and different charitable trusts and funds comes from donations given by devotees.