Tirupathi facts

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Hare Srinivasa!

Some interesting facts of Srinivasa in Tirupathi:

 

The nama of the Lord covers nearly three fourth of His face; hides the forehead, eyes, nose and portions of the cheek. This practice appears to have started only in 1465! Earlier paintings show the Lord with the SriVaishnavite nama which does not cover the nose and eyes This nama is not a Sri-Vaishnavite nama which is drawn in white clay (swetha mrittika) or the Gopi chandana and the central line is neither kumkuma or turmeric..The substance used in Tirupathi is refined camphor or pachha karpura and the central line is of fine dust of musk(kasturi). The camphor is not smeared on the face but is thrown on the upper part of the face repeatedly until some of it sticks. Then the parts of the face not to be covered are later wiped clean. After this the central partition is done with a kasturi line. During this operation the body of the idol is covered with a la!

rge silk cloth from neck downwards. And the priest stands on a make shift platform. The other temple deities too did not have this kind of nama till very recently.

Worship: The Vaikhanasa texts say that the main idol or Dhruva Bera is unfit to be worshipped by wordly people whose interests are ordinary and desires mundane. Only those who are selfless and engage themselves in spiritual endeavour worship such an image. Formal worship by flowers, water , etc cannot be offered to Him properly since He is nirguna, nishkala and niralamba. Therefore for formal worship the Koutuka Bera is installed near the Dhruva Bera. This will bestow both mundane benefits as well as salvation!

The Koutuka Bera (described in the previous mail) is placed near the feet on the left side. It does not reach even the anklet of the Dhruva Bera. But all the worship is done to this miniature icon and the gigantic and dazzling Srinivasa (main Idol) is only a witness to this worship!!

 

The Vaikhanasa practice is to establish a contact between the Dhruva Bera and the Koutuka Bera by a device known as Sambandha Kurcha. It is a bunch of 32 blades of Dharbha grass tied by a knot in a right ward orientation leaving the ends of the grass free 4 angulas in front. The front portion of the bunch represents Brahma, the knot Vishnu and rest Rudra. This sambandha kurcha is placed in the space that intervenes between the Dhruva and the Koutuka Beras with the front pointing to the Koutuka Bera. The drawing of power from the Dhruva to the Koutuka bera is called Kalakarshana and avahana.. Power of the Dhruva Bera is invoked into water first.(5 aspects from :vaktra, bahu, hridaya, kamya sthana and pada). While drawing power from the Dhruva Bera the order of Vyahritis employed is “bhuh-bhuvah-suvah”. But while invoking by means of kur!

cha that power in the Koutuka Bera, this order gets reversed.. Drawing power from the Dhruva Bera does not diminish its power like the case of lighting several lamps using one.

The main sequence of the worship is called tomala seva (tomala = toditta malai meaning flowers strung into garlands in Tamil). It is probable that in the days when koutuka bera had not yet been established, the worship of the main deity was only this service, for, agama forbids abhisheka, and application of unguents when the dhruva bera is worshipped alone. However arghya, padya, dhupa, dipa and naivedya may be offered to Him.

Regards

Dilip

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