Tirupati: Salakatla Anivara Asthanam has been observed with religious fervour in the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara on Wednesday in Tirumala. This festival is one among the 450 important festivals being performed in Srivari temple every year.
The uniqueness about this festival is that the previous year’s accounts of the office are presented before the deity by the principal officers and are taken back to signify that the Lord finds the officers fit enough to hold their respective offices.
New books will also be issued for recording finances of the next fiscal. In temple terms, the entire process is called Asthanam which will be performed inside sanctum sanctorum near Bangaru Vakili in the presence of processional deities of Lord Malayappa Swamy and his two consorts Sridevi and Bhudevi. In connection with this festival, TTD has cancelled all arjitha sevas like Sahasra Kalasabhishekam, Kalyanotsavam, Unjal seva, Brahmotsavam, Vasanthotsavam, Deeplankara seva on Wednesday.
The Asthanam was performed at the Bangaru Vakili inside the sanctum sanctorum between 7 am and 9 am.
The presiding deity of Sri Venkateswara Swamy is decorated with new vastrams which were decked for kireetam, khadgam, tomala and uttariyam and to the processional deities of Sri Malayappa Swamy and Vishvaksena.
These six silk vastrams are being presented by Tirumala Pedda Jiyangar Sri Periyakoil Kelviyappan Sadagopa Ramanuja Jeeyar along with Chinna Jiyangar Sri Narayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar as a part of the ritual.
Then the temple priests offered four types of haratis including Tallapaka Annamaiah harati, Tarigonda Vengamamba harati, Mysore Maharaja harati and Rupai harati to Lord.
A special set of silk vastrams were also presented to Lord by Sri Rangam Devasthanam on this occasion. Usually, the TTD will present the silk vastrams to Lord Sri Ranganatha Swamy of Sri Rangam once in a year during Kaisika Ekadasi.
The Sri Rangam Devasthanam follows a similar procedure of presenting the silk vastrams to Lord Venkateswara during Anivara Asthanam.
Sri Pedda Jeeyar Swamy, Sri Chinna jeeyar Swamy, TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy, TTD executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal, special officer AV Dharma Reddy, temple deputy EO Haridranath, Tamil Nadu endowment additional secretary Apporva Varma, Sri Rangam temple joint commissioner Jayaraman and others were present.
