Tirupati Laddu's record sale during Brahmotsavam

Tirumala, September 18: The Padi potu (lords kitchen) in the Srivari Temple, Tirumala is a bee-hive of action during the annual Brahmotsavam. In the last seven days of the annual festival almost 1.2 million laddu prasadams were sold out to devotees who thronged Tirumala to participate in the event. For centuries the laddu prasadam prepared inside the Srivari Temple and as per Agama traditions is considered auspicious and holy by devotees.|It is also part of the naivedyam presented to the Lord Venkaateswara every day.

The entire northern and western wing of the Sampangi Prakaram inside the Srivari Temple is a buzz with processing of laddus on high voltage stoves on gas and steam. The entire complex produces Panyarams which include Laddu, Vada, Appam, varieties of Dosa, Thene Thola (jilebi mururu), Poli, Sukhi etc which are served as Naivedyam to the Lord Venkateswara at regular intervals during the day. The operation is so huge that nearly 110 Vaishnava Brahmins and 400 other Brahmins are engaged in cooking the food for the Lord which is later also sold as prasadam of the Srivari Temple.

With ever increasing demand for laddu prasadam of Lord Venkateswara all over the country and overseas the TTD was forced to increase its production. Thanks to the philanthropic contribution of an industrialist from Chennai, now boondi, the basic ingredient for Laddu is prepared in a kitchen adjascent to the temple and sent over conveyor belt to be formed into laddus by vaishnavite brahmins as per Agama tradition.

The boondi which comes by conveyor belt is mixed with sugar syrup and given a liberal mix of almonds, dry grapes, elaichi etc which are prepared and grounded earlier and kept ready inside the Sampangi prakaram potu. After they were rolled up into laddus by the assistants at the black granite slabs along the northern wing of Sampangi prakaram they are sent back outside the temple on the conveyor belt to be sold to devotees.

'We tried mechanization of laddu making but due to heat of the automation it became as hard as cricket ball and hence we had to revert to manual shaping it into round balls of 175 gms and the bigger laddu Kalyana laddu of 750 grms' says the potu AEO( Assistant Executive Officer Srinivas. The reason for such a popularity of Laddu among pilgrims of Tirumala is its unique flavor, characteristics and never compromising quality of Laddus ever since it all began distributing 300 years ago. More importantly Laddu is the favorite naivedyam of Lord Venkateswara himself.

The architect of the 'Laddu Empire' is Kalyanam Iyengar and was the brain behind making Laddu synonymous with Tirupati. He was the uncrowned monarch who had several hundreds of men working in his 'kingdom of divine offerings'. The period from 1996-2001 was a time when the TTD prepared Laddu and other prasadam themselves. The influx of pilgrims meant made it a Herculean task for the officials to meet the huge demand

Prior to 1996 there were five Laddu mirasidars who had deputed Kalyanam Iyengar, as the agent for hiring Brahmin cooks and keep the laddu making a buzz. The Laddu prasadam of Tirumala like the Tomaala vada of Srirangam, Panchamirtham of Palani is the most delicious stuff blended with the blessings of the lord and considered always a top notch. Earlier as per the Mirasi account out of 51 laddus, the contractors got 11 laddus as their share in the sale. 'Of the 11 laddus, the priests got share of 2 laddus, Pedda Jeyars 2, gamekars -6 and One laddu went to another temple official.

'on an average we use 5000 liters of ghee, one and half tones of spices, almonds and other dry fruits per month' says the temple official and due to complaints of oil and gas affecting the 12th century prakaram building, they had shifted to steam as fuel in the last two years. 'We have even steel plated some portion of the Vaikunta prakaram' to ensure that heat did not impact the outer walls', he said . With the GI status for laddu, the TTD is producing as many as 3.5 lakh laddus in two shifts every day and almost fivelakh laddus on week ends. 'For Brahmotsavam we kept a buffer stock of five lakh laddus to ensure that none of the devotees were disappointed says Sri.IYR Krishna Rao, EO of the TTDs. Laddu is also sold freely @ four laddus per person now without consideration of visit to temple .