Early in the morning, usually at around 2 AM, The
'sannidhi-golla' (cowherd) will go to the residence of the archakas on the
north side of Swami Pushkarini, the temple tank. The golla escorts the
priests who have been allotted the duty in the sanctum sanctorum that day. The
archaka would have by that time had his morning bath, completed his
nitya-karmas, including worship of his own deity.Along with
archakas descendents of Annamayya family,Ekangi and other temple officials
with music of drums, bugles and horns will reach the main entrance of the
temple.The 'golla' will be holding a fireband in his hand,no body will not come
in front of sannidhi golla.
The system is triplicate lock system with archaka, Jiyyangar
and temple authorities having one key each. The archaka will first
symbolically place his key in the hand of the Dvarapalaka on the right of the
Bangaru Vakili. The priest will do pranama to dvarapalakas near the
Bangaru Vakili. Then he will take the key from the dvarapalaka and seal is
broken and the doors of golden vakili will be opened uttering suitable
mantras.All of them will enter into the temple and priests will do the common
rituals.The descendents of Annamayya family will sing the suprabatham to
Srivaru. This process will be continued through out the year,but only in
Dhanurmasam Thiruppavai is receited to Srivaru instead of suprabatham.
It is believed that Brahma conducts
worship every night for the Lord at Tirumala. Every night before closing the
doors of the Garbhagruha five gold cups of water with the spices specified for
puja as per agamas, added to them along with other puja articles are left at
the feet of the Lord so that Brahma may use them for the worship of Lord in the
night (Brahmaradhana). The devotees who go for Vishvarupadarshana get the
Tirtha believed to have been used by Brahma & other Gods for the puja
offered in the night.
The seva lasts around 30 mins and usually starts
at 3:00 a.m (2.30AM or earlier on Fridays). Suprabhatam is performed in Ekantam
and no tickets are issued to pilgrims during the month of Jyestha (May–June).
In the month of Margazhi ( December–January), the Suprabhatam verses are
replaced with the 30 verses of Tiruppavai.
Who is Sannidhi Golla ?
Before Lord Venkateswara became a statue he used
to stay in an anthill under a tamarind tree.A cow unable to see the Lord
suffering from hunger used to give milk every day .The cow actually belonged to
the cow herd of the king. The queen wished to give the milk of that particular
cow to her baby. But after giving milk to the lord in the ant hill, the cow
could not supply anymore milk.
The king got a complaint that the shepherd is
drinking all the milk of the cow. The king became very angry, got him tied to a
pillar and thrashed him severely. The shepherd pleaded the king to give him one
chance to find out where the cow was going and why it was not giving milk. The
king finally released him with a warning that the cow should give milk the next
day or he should explain why the cow is not giving milk and if neither of these
things happened he is going to die.
The next day the shepherd began to carefully
observe the cow. After some time he noticed the cow leaving the herd and going
into the forest alone. He followed the cow covering himself with a black
blanket and carrying an axe. Like every day the cow began to give milk to the
anthill. Seeing this the shepherd became very angry. He went near the cow
without making any noise and striked it with his axe. But the axe missed its
aim as the cow moved aside and it hit the Lord in the anthill. The Lord stood
from the anthill wiping his blood and shouting at the shepherd for trying to
kill the cow, which satisfied his hunger like his mother. Seeing Lord
Venkateswara with a bright face and blood oozing from his head the shepherd
repented for his act and he died there seeing the Lord with fear in his eyes.
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