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Journalism of Courage
“Tirumala?”
A woman in her 50s shouts at the bus driver, who nods in confirmation. Seconds later, even before she reaches an empty seat, the driver revs the throttle and the bus leaves the stand in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati.
Kalawathi, 58, has just completed a gruelling three-day walk to Tirupati from Chennai, around 130 km away. Though her companions continued their walk towards the hills, to the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple, a stiff knee bested Kalawathi around 20 km from the temple. To a question on whether she had heard of the controversy surrounding the laddu, she says, “I heard something here and there on the news.”
Questioning the management practices of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) under the previous YSRCP government, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu recently made public lab reports that alleged the laddus offered to the deity before being distributed daily among the devotees were contaminated with animal and vegetable fat, including lard, fish oil and beef tallow. The TTD board is responsible for the management of one of the world’s most famous and richest shrines.
The row escalated on September 27, with the Telugu Desam Party-led NDA government escalating its attack on YSR Congress Party chief and former CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who cancelled his planned visit to Tirumala on September 28.
A sea of pilgrims visit the deity at the TTD-administered Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple each day to offer money and their hair. On their way out, they buy the famous Tirupati laddu — one of the key prasadams here. While most in town have dismissed the laddu controversy as a “non-issue”, others feel that “the adulterated laddus are just the tip of the iceberg”.
Kalawathi, who says she visits the temple twice a year, says she will buy laddus based on what her children have to say about the issue. “My daughter has been calling me repeatedly and telling me not to buy the laddus this time. I will see what my son has to say too,” she states, as the concrete jungle of Tirupati gives way to thick forests and chants of “Govinda-Govinda” fill the bus at each hairpin bend.
At the main Rambagicha bus stand, located near the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple, Nashik-based Bapu Pandurang Waje, his wife and their grandchildren are waiting for the rest of their family to exit the shrine. The waiting family looks wilted due to exhaustion and the heat.
To a question on if they had bought laddus, Waje says, “We bought 10 laddus. They are with my sons. We have laddus at home all year since someone or the other from the family keeps visiting the temple. We have been visiting Tirumala every year for the last 25 years. I think the laddus still taste the same.”
While the laddu is just one of the many offerings to the deity at the temple, it is highly popular. Waiting outside the main laddu prasadam counter, devotee K P Naidu from Anakapalle is all for a “comprehensive investigation” into the TTDs functioning over the last few years.
“I visit the temple every six months. The laddu has been smelling odd for a while now. Though the controversy is a political issue, the government should look into all the other irregularities going on here,” says Naidu, 35.
Local cab driver Madan Kumar too feels that the quality of the laddu has come down “drastically”. He says, “In the past, the laddu was known for its quality — ghee would ooze out as one held it in their hand. But now, devotees think it is blasphemous to speak out against the prasadam.”
Holding fresh laddus in their hand, Vizag-based siblings Chandrashekar and Yogananden joined the chorus of voices calling for “transparency and truth”. Chandrasekhar says, “The government should investigate the matter thoroughly and take stringent action (in case of any wrongdoing).”
Meanwhile, a TTD official claimed that the demand for laddus had increased despite CM Naidu’s revelation. “With Brahmotsavam around the corner, the sale of laddus has increased. Usually, we sell about 3.5 lakh laddus a day. Due to a spike in demand, we are keeping a buffer stock of seven lakh laddus daily,” he adds.
A priest said there are dedicated kitchens for making prasadam out of rice varieties and laddus. As per tradition, boondi made from chana dal flour is added to a sugar syrup made of pure jaggery. Then, dry fruits like cashews, almonds and raisins are added, besides a few strands of saffron, some camphor and pure ghee. The laddu is then made by hand.
A conveyor belt takes the laddus from the dedicated kitchen to the storage area, from where they are sent to the counter in trays. The prasadam is prepared round the clock, with a short break at midnight, by nearly 200 workers who work in shifts. The quality control department checks the quality of the prasadam now and then.
Head priest and Agama advisor A V Ramana Deekshitulu, whose family holds hereditary right to serve as priests in the temple, told The Indian Express, “About 200 years ago, boondi made of jaggery was offered as prasadam at the temple. When white sugar became available, the prasadam transformed into boondi made of white sugar.”
In the 1930s and 1940s, that boondi was made into laddus and distributed among the devotees, he says. “There were some rice varieties and sweet varieties like paniyaram, jalebi, vada, appam, manoharam, etc. However, the demand for laddus was more since one could take it home due to its longer shelf life,” Deekshitulu, 74, says.
Food historian Krish Ashok agrees that this particular category of laddu is a 20th-century phenomenon. “People think these standards are very ancient when in fact these are just bureaucratic inventions of human administrators who run the temples,” he says.
A man named Kalyanam Iyengar was responsible for the origins of the laddu at the temple, he says, adding that sweets like pongal, sukhiyam, manoharam, appam, etc., were common at that time. “Iyengar did it at the behest of a rich patron. The system then dictated that only members of the family could make these laddus. In the 1980s, the state challenged the right to hereditary positions on the grounds of professionalism.”
The author of Tirumala: Sacred Food of Gods, Deekshitulu says, “The Agama Shastra (a manual for worship) dictates the quantity and size of the prasadam, which is decided as per the deity’s height (9.5 feet). Even the ingredients — which should be satvik (pure, balanced) in nature — are decided by the Agama Shastra. This is why pepper is used in the prasadam and not green chillies.”
He says pure ghee made from cow milk plays a crucial role since it is used not only as an ingredient in the prasadam but also for lighting the lamps and during the havan.
Deekshitulu says, “Around 2018, the quality, aroma, taste and shelf life of the laddus and other prasadams started declining. I complained about this many times. The lab reports are indeed shocking. I never thought the ghee would be adulterated. It is the same ghee I have been offering to the deity.”
