The Sri Venkateswara Temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Kasibugga recently became famous as “chinna” (small) Tirupati since it is modelled after the Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Temple, several officials, including Palasa Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajeshwara Rao, told The Indian Express. The temple was the site of a deadly stampede on Saturday.
Sources said that a landlord named Hari Mukunda Panda, who resides in Kasibugga, had a bitter experience several years ago at the Tirumala temple, when he was unable to performdarshan because he fell ill and security officials removed him from the queue, instructing him to visit the hospital. He was able to go inside the next day, but felt that after waiting for eight-nine hours, the darshan of only a few seconds was disappointing. “He vowed to build a temple dedicated to Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Temple,” Rao said.
Panda, who is around 90 years of age, and his family own vast tracts of land in and around Kasibugga, according to Revenue Department officials. He sold off several acres of coconut groves and built the temple on 12 acres of farm land.
A temple official said only the family’s money was used to build the temple, and no donations were collected. The land was registered in “Lord Venkateshwara’s name” at the Palasa sub-registrar’s office before the building of the temple started, the official said. Officials said Panda is known to drive around the temple premises and his vast estate on a Massey Ferguson tractor.
When the temple was inaugurated four months ago, Panda said that those who cannot afford to go to Tirumala can have darshan at his temple with the same feeling in an almost similar-looking temple.
“I am an ardent and faithful devotee of Lord Sri Venkateswara, and this temple is dedicated to all the devotees,” he had said. After the temple opened, it started witnessing 1,000-2,000 visitors daily, touching approximately 5,000 devotees on weekends and holidays, according to officials.
The idol placed inside is similar to the one at Tirumala – 9 feet and 9 inches tall. The “Ekashila idol” was carved from a single stone after consultations with Vedic pandits of Tirumala, officials said.
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Panda also organised devotional programmes inside the sprawling temple premises as well as outside, and would make large donations to the development of small local temples. The construction of the temple started five years ago. Apart from the idol of the main deity, Lord Sri Venkateshwara, idols of several other gods and goddesses were on the temple premises.
TDP’s Palasa MLA, G Sireesha, who visited the temple several times, said that it became famous very quickly, attracting a large number of devotees. “Although it is privately owned, it is managed quite well. Today this stampede occurred, which is very unfortunate,” she said.
After Saturday’s stampede in which eight women and a 13-year-old boy died, Panda said that he and his management team did not anticipate such a large number of devotees. “Thousands of devotees have visited since the temple opened, and there was never even a small untoward incident. Today, some of the devotees who came on this auspicious day met a terrible fate,” he said. Panda now finds himself booked by the police for culpable homicide.
