#HemaVasuTravels: Our first visit to Tirupathi & Kanipakam
This is first of series of posts talks about places we have travelled since the time we got married in 2011. We will try and write in a sequential order but we may write in different order as well.
Soon after our wedding reception in June, 2011 – we have decided to visit Tirupathi. We have reached Tirupathi a day before than we intend to have darshan. Then in 2011, there was no facility to buy darshan tickets online.
We have reached Tirumala by 3:45 am and proceeded to queue that is meant for visitors who have purchased at INR 300. The queue was much less than we expected. It was fortunate moment that we had darshan for about 7 minutes.
Tirumala is an auspicious pilgrim place that has beautiful architecture above seven hills.
About Tirumala from Wikipedia
Tirumala is located 3,200 feet (980 m) above sea level and covers an area of approximately 10.33 square miles (26.8 km2). Surrounding the hills are seven peaks of Seshachalam range, Eastern Ghats namely Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrushabadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri. The temple of Sri Venkateswara[2] is on the seventh peak (Venkatadri).
At 21 km point on the Tirupati – Tirumala Ghat road, there is a major discontinuity of stratigraphic significance that represents a period of remarkable serenity in the geological history of the Earth. This is referred to as Eparchaean Unconformity. This Unconformity separates the Proterozoic Nagari Quartazite and Archean granite representing a time gap of 800 Ma.[3] In 2001, the Geological Survey of India(GSI) declared the Eparchaean Unconfirmity to be one of the 26 “Geological Monuments of India”.
Source: Wikipedia
Then we have proceed to visit Kanipakam, an auspicious place that has Lord Vinayaka temple. We were so fortunate that we have reached temple where darshan is allowed to idol without decoration (it’s called “real display of God – Nija roopa swarupam”). We had a blissful darshan.
About Kanipakam from Wikipedia
Vinayaka Temple or Sri Varasidhi Vinayaka Swamy Temple is a Hindu temple of Ganesha. It is located at Kanipakam in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India.[1] The temple is about 11 km from Chittoor and 68 km from Tirupati.
Source: Wikipedia
Then we have visited Alamelu mangapuram temple at Tiruchanoor and then Govindaraja Swamy temple. Finally we have visited Iskon temple and concluded our visit.