Is Thirupathy - a shaivaite temple ?

[gokulkr]

In Skanda Purana there are 6 cantos.

In First canto, there is reference of "Venkatachalam (Tirupathi)".

There it is said, the deity in "Venkatachalam (Tirupathi)" is Skanda (not Vishnu/Narayana) and it is also said that Vishnu & other devas come there to worship the deity.

So Reference of Skanda as main deity of Tirupathy, highly disturbs me since Lord Venkateshwara is my family deity. Please someone clarify my doubt.

Hare Krishna

Om Namo Venkatesha

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Skanda Purana is a purana that is still being written even today. For centuries it has been the chosen Purana if anyone wanted to add a story into the scriptures.

 

Ramanuja settled the matter of who the deity was.

[Guest guest]

There is a big debate as to who the deity is as the iconography of the diety is ambiguous.

 

Some say Shiva due to the style of Crown and serpant armlets. Whilst others have interpreted these "Saivite" markings as being his son Skanda, who is often worshiped on hill tops. Yet others see him as devi. Yet he has Lakshmi on his chest, which is clear who he is. And many scriptures procliam Him as Vishnu, many scholors argue that these scirpture (such as varaha purana) are vaishnava biased. In a book i have about the temple, the author explains that Balaji as Vishnu is mentioned in an ancient Jain text, and unlike the purans you cannot see jain texts as being baised to hindu sects as they are a non-vedic faith who would have no sectarian interests in balaji.

 

I think its important that you dont find these skanda purana verses disturbing. Remember that Skanda puran is as Tamasik puruna whereas Varaha Puruna is statvik so the words of this book should be taken more clearly. Also there is no problem with the Kaumras (Skanda Devotees) seeing Balaji as Skanda, or the Shaivas seing him as Siva or Shakthas seeing him s Devi..at the end of the day they are all worshiping lord Balaji in an indirect way. Remember that demigod worship has its position in Vedic Dharma, not all have the spiritual maturity to worship SrimanNarayana directly.

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Another aspect is that each sthala has multiple deities presiding over it in various ages. There may have been a skanda temple there in some yuga.

 

Also the deity reciprocates according to the worship. For many centuries He was worshipped as Skanda. The deity is physically speaking a stone, but the worship manifests the Lord's presence.