01The devotee who could not go
The temple’s katha tells of a devotee who walked every year to Tirumala, until illness stopped him. Balaji came to him in a dream and told him he was near at hand, and the murti was found at Chilkur in an anthill, the spade drawing blood from it as it was dug. The temple has been kept since by the family of its hereditary priests. Chilkur has become known as the Visa Balaji, after students and families who prayed here for visas abroad, and the temple asks only that devotees keep faith and return to give thanks.
02No hundi
Chilkur keeps no donation box and sells no special darshan; every devotee stands in the same line. The priests have long held that the temple should stay free of government control and of money, and it is among the few major temples in the region run this way. A wish is made with eleven pradakshinas; when it comes true the devotee returns and walks 108. On busy days the circling crowd flows round the shrine like a river.
The life of this place
- c. 16th century (tradition)The murti is found and the temple founded.
About 25 km west of Hyderabad, near Osman Sagar (Gandipet). Weekends are very crowded; there is no paid darshan.
