Weddings everywhere in pilgrim Tirupati

Tirupati: Tirupati and Tirumala wore a wedding look with a number of marriages took place on Sunday. Activity with full of enthusiasm can be witnessed at every kalyana mandapam in the temple city.

People feel it as a sentiment to perform the marriage of their children at the abode of Lord Venkateswara and they come to Tirupati.  As the celestial wedding of Sri Varu being performed every day, it was said to be the best place to tie the knot in the temple city.  

All the kalyana mandapams in Tirupati, Tiruchanoor and Tirumala were booked much in advance, leaving others with no choice but to organise the wedding functions at hotels. Both this Saturday and Sunday were considered as auspicious to perform marriages.

A Vedic pandit told that Vidiya and Uttara Naksatram came up in Krishna Paksham in this Phalguna Masam, which was said to be a good ‘muhurtham’ for weddings.

On Sunday alone, Tirumala witnessed 200 marriages in the TTD kalyana mandapams, Purohit Sangham and Dharmik Mutts. In Tiruchanoor, around 100 marriages took place in 40 kalyana mandapams in addition to about 200 in Tirupati kalyana mandapams, hotels and convention centres.     

An equal number of marriages were said to be taking place in other parts of the district such as Sri Kalahasti, Sreenivasa Mangapuram, Kanipakam, Chittoor, Madanapalli, Palamanaeru etc with no function hall was left vacant. Some more weddings being performed at temples, houses and at vacant sites.

In view of the large number of marriages, the demand for flowers, wedding contractors and others have gone up. The price of garlands ranges between Rs 1000 and Rs 30000 depending on the type of flowers out of which Rs 5000-10000 garlands were quite common.

While TTD Kalyana mandapams collect nominal fees, private kalyana mandapams charging from Rs 50000 to Rs 1.5 lakh and the stage decoration also takes almost the same amount though it may go up several times depending on the status of the family concerned.

By V Pradeep Kumar