Parakamani in the premises of Lord Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Tirumala is said to be a special place where counting of offerings such as coins, currency notes, and ornaments of gold and silver will be counted, where the tradition has been followed way back to the 17th century.
Now, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has constructed a new building for Parakamani Matrusri Tarigonda Vengamamba Annaprasada Complex in an area of 14,962 square feet with a cost of Rs 10 crore donated by a devotee called Murali Krishna from Bengaluru.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated the new Parakamani building with the latest security facilities including CCTV cameras on September 28, 2022, and the TTD launched the process of counting the offerings from February 5 morning onwards.
The Parakamani has its significance on the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara Swamy. According to the age-old practice, as many as six to 12 hundis will be filled with offerings made by devotees and these hundis with offerings will be shifted to Parakamani Mandap in the Southwest of the main temple.
As many as 50 TTD employees on deputation and a good number of Srivari Sevakulu (devotees voluntarily do service) will do the segregation of coins and currency from the offerings and send them to Parakamani mandap daily. The other offerings made of gold and silver will be safely stored in a secured place. The value of the above-said items will be assessed monthly once in the presence of an appraiser and sent to the TTD Treasury in Tirupati amid tight security.
According to an official estimation, the devotees have been making offerings to Lord Venkateswara Swamy of a value ranging from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 6 crore daily. But it became difficult to shift the offerings after counting in between the queue lines of the devotees outside of the temple. With the blessings of Tirumala SriSriSri Peda Jeeyar Swamy, the 12 hundis in the Srivari Temple were placed in a lorry with the help of a small lift and shifted to the new Parakamani building. From now onwards, all hundis in the temple will be shifted to the Parakamani building on a daily basis. Later the executive officer monitored the counting at Parkamani and made some suggestions to the employees concerned.
According to the statutes, the tradition of offerings to the presiding deity by the devotees through hundis started way back in the 17th century. The offerings that started with a small value have now reached a value that crossed Rs 7 crore mark daily. Before 1965, the counting of offerings by the employees was taken in front of the Golden Gate of the main temple in Tirumala.
The officials of the TTD have been planning to install two machines at the new Parakamani building to count and pack the coins collected from the hundis. The TTD has accepted tenders of Rs 2.8 crore in this regard.
Earlier, the TTD decided to shift the currency and coins from the hundis in the temple to the outside with the cranes placed near the temple. But due to security reasons, the TTD took back its decision and shifted the hundis manually up to Maha Dwaram and from there shifted them to new Parakamani in special vehicles.
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