Seven Sacred Hills at Tirupati
The divine row of tirumala hills is situated at Tirupati, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, 3200 ft above the sea level. It comprises of seven adris (hills). The seven hills represent the seven hoods of Adishesha.
The magnitude of tirumala’s greatness is as follows:-
Once upon a time when it was satyug, Lord Vishnu asked sage narada to assist him finding the appropriate place on planet earth where he could abide during the Iron Age (Kalyug), as the people of Iron Age would forget the Lord, and their spiritual values. Sage Narada suggested the place as south of India. Lord was very pleased since the satyug was about to over and he was about to incarnate on earth for devotees betterment during the Iron Age (Kalyug) and a part of heaven was to be brought down on earth. So adhisesha also decided to come down to earth, adhisesa came down and took the form of seshadri hill, one of the hill of seven sacred hills.
1. Seshadri
The name seshadri resembles adishesha, on which lord Vishnu reclines in paradise. Once there was an ego tussle between Vayu Dev and Adishesha in paradise to prove their supremacy. Vayu dev was of view that he is omnipresent like lord Vishnu and that the world cannot live without it. Angrier Adhisesha raised one of his hoods, Vayu dev seized the chance and blew with tremendous force, and the force was so vigorous that Adhisesha fell down on planet earth. Later Vayu Dev was regretting his deed of eliminating adhisesha from his couch. He came on planet earth to apologize for his deeds and requested Adhisesha to forgive him. Adhisesha then replied like everything happens is because of the will of lord and that he would stay on earth in the form of seshadri hill to serve lord Vishnu who was about to incarnate in south India.
2. Garudadri
Lord Vishnu incarnated as White Boar to save the planet earth from the clutches of the demon ‘Hiranyaaksha’. Mother Earth was very happy to be free and requested lord Vishnu to stay on earth with her. Then the lord told garuda to bring the part of Mount Meru from paradise to planet earth. The part then was known as Garudadri hill. It is situated near venkata hill(lord vishnu’s residence).
3. Neeladri
The name is neeladri is given by lord srinivasa as neeladevi was the primary to offer her hair to lord srinivasa as the lord was met an accident with a shepard and wounded his head. A small part of lord’s head becomes bald. Neeladevi noticed the bald part and taught like such a handsome lord must not possess any defect, so she immediately removed her hair and placed it in that bald part of lord with her divine powers. From then devotees offer hairs to lord srinivasa, offering hair is considered as leaving ego. Daily around one ton of hair is collected, It is then sold to devotes by auction.
4. Anjandri
Kesari was a demon (asura) of the kingdom anjan. He performed years of penance (tapasya) of lord shiva to get an immortal son. Lord shiva became happy with the offerings of kesari and appeared in front of him. Lord shiva then said - “You are not fortunate enough to have an immortal son, but the same would be fulfilled by your divine daughter”. Later on the daughter of kesari – anjani offered penance for many years and then anjani was blessed with son hanuman’.
5. Vrishabhadri
There was a devil named vrishabasura, he used to present offerings in a very unique way to Lord Vishnu, he daily used to offer his head with rose, with the grace of GOD the severed head would join the body immediately. When the devil died he requested lord Vishnu that a hill must be shaped by his name as a remembrance that he used to live here and attained salvation. The GOD granted the wish of demon and named the hill on the devil’s name as
6. Narayandri
This hill is called Narayanaadri in honour of Narayanarishi.
7. Venkatadri
The name venkadari got its namw by combining two Sanskrit words VEN means sin and kata means the thing that burns. Venkatadri is a place where all sins are burnt. A sinner madhava was sufferingfrom leprosy as soon sa he entered the venkatdri hills, he was cured. The pilgrims started singing song "Govinda Govinda”. From then Shree Balaji is famously known as sin slayer.