TIRUMALA: Two days after Maha Samprokshanam — the six-day cleansing ritual held once in 12 years at Sri Venkateswara Temple in Tirumala— was wrapped up, 66,927 pilgrims visited the hill shrine on Saturday.
During the ritual that began on August 11, darshan timings were limited to a few hours, leading to the steepest dip in devotee footfall in over five decades. The number of devotees visiting the hill shrine started picking up steadily after Friday afternoon. By the time it was 6 pm, the queue complex was thronging with devotees and 51,512 had darshan of Lord Venkateswara.
As per temple records, 27,072 pilgrims tonsured their heads on Friday.
At the stroke of midnight, 30,000 people would have received darshan. The temple will continue to be open till 1.30 am.
Waiting hours lasted longer than usual as pilgrims who couldn’t get darshan during Maha Samprokshanam too arrived at the temple.
Due to decreased devotee footfall, the hundi collections dropped significantly, with just Rs 51 lakh being collected on August 15 and Rs71 lakh on August 13. All other days crossed over Rs 1 crore. From August 11 to 15, 1,35,600 people had darshan at the temple. Only 16,400 had darshan of Lord Venkateswara on Wednesday.