tirumala in old days

Dear friendsNamasthe.as all of us are aware 30,000-50,000 piligrims visit THIRUMALA everyday to have darshan of LORD SRIVENKATESWARA[ BALAJI].. .and it reaches a lakh on brahmotsavam days...similarly nowadays one has to reserve archana tickets well in advance....as you are aware if we book abhishekam ticket now,your turn will come only in 2021!....yes, you have to wait for fifteen years!....How was thirumala in good olden days?...can you believe if I say children used to play in the temple in those days?...and you can just walk into the temple straight!... .go through these few lines about how thirumala was in those days.... About hundreds years ago...all these cottages,canteens, shops were not existing on thirumla...only temple and hathiramji matt are the two constructions existing on the sacred hill....even archakas used to stay in kothur village down the hills...archakas used to go up the hill on walk everyday at 5.00 A.M. in the morning and offer morning prasadams to LORD at 07.00 A.M....piligrims used to trek the mountains in groups chanting GOVINDA,GOVINDA. ...old people used to go by dolis...ten annas was the charge for doly.... archakas used to close the temple by 4.00 p.m. and walk down the hill...Devotes used to go straight through mahadwaram,main entreance... in fact till as early sixties pilirims used to go through mahadwaram like any other temple... there were no ques like these days...children used to play in the temple premises...200- 300 piligrims used to visit thirumala in those days....devotees used to eat praasadams for lunch too...it was very difficult in those days to reach thirumala by walk...one has to walk through thick forest braving wild animals and severe cold...british government built steps in 1870...these steps too were not like the ones we see now...the steps were just laid out with stones...it was very difficult to climb...the steps were not symmetrical. ..it used to be very cold in thirumala... added to this the fear of wild animals... tigers and lions used to move freely in the nights...by 4.00 p.m.thirumala used to be empty...it was thought that unless thirumala developes as a small village it would be difficult to provide amenities to piligrims... so HATHIRAM MATT gave some lands on lease to some locals of thirupathi and encouraged them to stay on the hill...initially about ten families used to stay on thirummala.. .many piligrims used to stay in their houses only...they used to treat the piligrims very affectionately. ..Vada prasadam used cost be four annas in those days...there was no LADDU PRASADAM in the initial days...sweet boondi used to the prasadam...later LADDU PRADAM was introduced.. .In those days KALYANOTSAVAM used to be performed 2-3 times in a month...today almost 1,000 couples perform kalyanotsavam everyday...now one has to reserve well in adavance for kayanotsavam. ..in those days only when some V.IP.asks for KAYANOTSAVAM, only then it used to be performed... the prasadams containining 20 laddus,20 vadas and four types of annaprasadams used to be sent to the gruhasthas cottage[those who perform the kalanotsavam] ...they used to be be taken by devasthanam persons with bhajantris.. .the temple HUNDI collection used to be in couple of thousands in those days...today it is almost ONE CRORE PER DAY!.....Piligrims from NANDED in maharashtra used to be special attraction in those days during brahmotsavams. ...they used be called as ‘tellaguddollu’ meaning people wearing white caps....they used to stay in the houses of locals by paying one rupee a day...ten rupees for ten days of brahmotsavams. ...piligrims also used to stay in veyikalla mandapam...this was dismantled recently by the government inviting sharp criticism for many quarters.... ...many peetadhipathis and devotees opposed the dismantling of this age old mandapam...but of no avail... Pilgrims rush started increasing slowly...by 1940 it was in couple of hundreds...the first ghat road was completed in 1944 by M/S GANNON AND DUNKERLY and was opened to devotees by ARTHUR HOPE,the then GOVERNER of MADRAS STATE in april...slowly bullock carts and horse carts started moving on this ghat road...a small matador type buses was introduced in late 50s...it used to be called as budda bassu,meaning small bus...by then the number of piligrims increased to about 700-800 a day...initially there used to be one bus in the morning...same will return at 4.00 p.m. in the evening...then the number of trips have been increased to thrice a day...The first cottages were in the form of ASBESTOS SHEDS...they were called as N.M.SHEDS... northmada sheds...thirty such sheds were constructed in 50s with the donations from piligrims... later concrete block was constructed for the stay of V.I.Ps...it used to be known as N.M.R.C.C. shed...fullfledged cottages were built in much later years...Dear friends,hope you found all this interesting. ...more interesting info in later mails...Srilakshmisrinivasa kataksha siddhirasthuWith best wishes