On the Tirumala hills of the Seshachalam range in Andhra Pradesh — the seven sacred peaks revered as the heads of the serpent Adisesha — stands the temple of Lord Venkateswara, known lovingly as Balaji or Srinivasa, among the most visited and most venerated shrines on earth. Here Vishnu is worshipped as the Lord who descended to save mankind through the Kali age, and so the hill is called Kaliyuga Vaikuntha, Vaikuntha on earth. His glory is told in the Venkatachala Mahatmya preserved within the Skanda Purana, and he is counted among the 108 Divya Desams glorified by the Alvar saints and revered as one of the eight self-manifested (Svayam Vyakta) abodes of Vishnu.
The self-manifested black-stone image, adorned with gold and jewels beneath the golden Ananda Nilayam vimana, draws tens of thousands of pilgrims daily. Devotees offer their hair in surrender of ego, receive the celebrated Tirupati laddu as prasadam, and fulfil vows to the Lord believed never to refuse a sincere prayer. Tirumala is the beating heart of Vaishnava devotion in the South, and among the richest temples in the world.
