TIRUMALA, July 13, 2016
The TTD management has made Aadhaar card mandatory for ‘anga pradakshinam’ at the famous hill temple of Lord Venkateswara. ‘anga pradakshinam’ is a practice wherein a devotee, drenched in wet clothes, rolls over his body around the sanctum on the floor inside the hill temple in fulfilment of his or her prayers.
Devotees, who wish to perform ‘anga pradakshinam’, should hereafter carry their Aadhaar card as an identity proof along with them.
A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level review meeting by TTD Executive Officer D. Sambasiva Rao with the HoDs of various departments at Annamaiah Bhavan on Tuesday.
The main intention, it is learnt, is to enable more number of devotees take part in the traditional form of prayer which has been in vogue for several centuries.
The TTD issues about 750 free tokens to devotees every day to perform the rite.