300 year old Tirumala Laddu

Sri Vari Laddu or Tirumala Laddu, The Prasad of Lord Sri Venkateshwara at his Swayambu shrine Tirumala is now a 300 year old Prasad. Temple officials say the sacred offering was introduced on August 2, 1715.

No pilgrimage to the world's richest Hindu temple is complete without the laddu, made from flour, sugar, ghee, oil, cardamom and dry fruits. The mouth-watering sweet is the most sought after prasad after prayers to Lord Venkateswara.

Although the temple offers various types of 'prasad', the laddu is more popular among pilgrims.

According to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the affairs of the hill shrine, about ninety million laddus were given away to pilgrims in 2014.

The normal price of a 300 gram laddu is Rs.25. The TTD says that use of quality ingredients makes it costly but it sells laddu at a highly subsidised rate.

As a privilege to pilgrims, two laddus are issued at a further subsidized rate of Rs.10 each.

The sale of prasad is a major source of income for the temple, which had a budget of Rs.2,401 crore for fiscal 2014-15.

The authorities sell the prasad round the clock during Brahmotsavam. Last year, about 1.8 million laddus were sold in the first seven days of Brahmotsavam, breaking all previous records.

Nearly 620 people, including 270 cooks, work in the laddu and other prasad making units.

The TTD took up modernisation of the temple kitchen last year with the installation of two escalator belts for laddus and boondi crates.

TTD Joint Executive Officer K.S. Sreenivasa Raju said that the conveyor systems have the capacity to transfer up to 800,000 laddus every day.

The Office of the Registrar of Patents, Trademarks and Geographical Indications in 2014 awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) status to the Tirupati laddu.

TTD officials said they had to enforce GI rights as some small-time miscreants as well as large known sweet outlets have been selling laddus with names similar to 'Tirupati laddu'.

The Madras High Court in 2013 restrained a sweet stall in Chennai from using the brand name 'Tirupati laddu'.

The TTD had argued that 'Tirupati laddu' has its own sanctity as it is offered at the feet of Lord Venkateswara before being made available to devotees.