Yadadri now open to public

Yadadri: After nearly six years of hard work, Telangana's Yadadri temple has transformed from a small hill shrine into a magnificent and sprawling pilgrimage centre and an architectural marvel. Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, popularly known as Yadadri temple, and located about 60 km from Hyderabad in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, has undergone complete transformation in line with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's ambitious vision. It has been completely renovated and reconstructed at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore.

The temple was finally reopened for devotees on Monday amidst chanting of Vedic hymns and elaborate rituals involving scores of priests in the presence of the Chief Minister, his family members, Ministers, Speaker of the Assembly and several other VVIPs.

Accompanied by his wife Shoba Rao, other family members, a host of Cabinet ministers, TRS leaders and officials, KCR participated in the 'Mahakumbha Samprokshana'. He performed Kalasha pujas and participated in the procession carrying the presiding deity from Balalayam to the sanctum sanctorum. It is expected that a flow of devotees would begin from Tuesday onwards. The gold-plated Gopuram and Rajagopuram (the pyramidal structure) at the temple entrance were at the centre of attraction. The renovated temple is now a 17-acre, three-storey temple with seven gopurams and sculptures, which the officials believe would mesmerise devotees for years to come. While the overall project is spread over 2,000 acres, the development has been completed over 250 acres around the hill shrine. In the past, it was spread over just 2,500 square yards with hardly any space for devotees to move around after darshan or to get prasadam.

As bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh led to the residuary state keeping most of the major temples, KCR drew an ambitious plan to revamp and renovate 1,000-year-old temple at Yadagirigutta into a temple at par with Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh, which is the world's richest Hindu temple.

KCR decided to club the neighbouring eight hills to make it a mega centre of pilgrimage. Thus, the pilgrimage centre will have nine hills against seven hills of Tirumala. The government created Yadadri Temple Development Authority (YTDA) to execute the renovation and reconstruction works. Authorities have not used conventional materials such as cement, bricks and concrete in the project. They used only lime and mortar for the temple works as per heritage norms. It is said to be the only temple in India which has been built with Krishna Shila (black stone). About 2.5 lakh tonnes of black stone was sourced from Prakasam and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh for sculpture and other works. A footfall of about 8,000 pilgrims a day is expected, and this may go up to 40,000 on weekends or on holidays.

Every day, about 1,500 workers, including 800 sculptors, from different places, including Allagadda, Karimnagar and Tamil Nadu, toiled long and hard to execute the mega project.

Temple's chief architect Anand Sai visited several temples across South India before making a final plan. According to him, seven gopurams are inspired by Srirangam temple of Tiruchirapalli. Gold-plating of Vimana Gopuram or the main gopuram at the temple has been inspired by Tirumala temple. The gold-plating of Gopuram, which is an ongoing work, requires 125 kg gold.

The Rajagopuram at the temple entrance is seven-storey high. It is made of stones weighing 13,000 tonnes.

TEMPLE TIMINGS

Yadadri temple opens at 3 am and Suprabhatha Seva would be conducted from 3 am to 3.30 am. Aradhana would be performed from 3.30 am to 4 am and Balabogam from 4 am to 4.30 am. Nijabhisekham would be held from 4.30 am to 5.30 am. Alankarana Seva would be from 5.30 am to 5.45 am. Sahasra Narmarcha would be performed from 5.45 am to 6.30 am.

Time free darshan is from 6.30 am to 8 am, from 9 am to 12 noon, from 12.45 to 4 pm and 8.15 pm to 9.15 pm. VIP break darshan would be from 8 am to 9 am and from 4 pm to 5 pm. Rajabhogam would be held from 12 noon to 12.45 pm. Tiruvaradhana would be held from 7 am to 7.30 pm. Aragimpu Seva would be conducted from 9.15 pm to 9.45 pm. The temple would be closed at 10 pm after Shayaistvam.