Guest guest Posted November 25, 2006 Report Share Posted November 25, 2006 BANGALORE (November 22, 2006): After Mumbai, next on the itinerary of the Tirupati gods is Detroit in the United States. God willing (and if devotees pay for it) the temple authorities will extend the guided tour of Lord Balaji and Goddess Padmavati to other destinations across India and the world. At each port of call, a ritual wedding of the God and the Goddess will be performed, an event hitherto conducted only at Tirupati. But first, the Gods will wed in Mumbai on December 2 and 3, followed by another celestial marriage in Detroit some six months later. While the original idols of Balaji and his paramour will continue to be ensconced in the hilltop temple's impregnable sanctum, it is their replicas that will do the travelling. "This is the first time the idols are being sent out of the country," spokesman K. Rampulla Reddy of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) told DNA. Trained archakas (priests) of Tirupati's Vedapatha Shalam will perform the rituals. The Detroit tour took shape earlier this month when TTD's chairman B. Karunakar Reddy was in the U.S. to visit the Venkataswara Temple at Novi in Michigan. The Detroit Telugu Association will foot the bill for the transportation and the rituals, the same way the South Indian Education Society will bear expenses for the Mumbai tour. While existing replicas of the idols are being taken to Mumbai, the ones that are going to the US are being sculpted at TTD's Institute of Traditional Sculpture and Architecture. SOURCE: DNA India, Mumbai. Gods to go globe-trotting. By Bhargavi Kerur URL: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1065595 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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