The Srivari Temple is one of the wealthiest places of worship in India and after ticket sales for darshans – the sighting of the deity – the biggest money earner for the temple is the laddu.
In their 2016-’17 budget, the temple board estimated their revenue from offerings at over Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 175 crore from laddu sales.
The earnings from sale of sweets, darshan tickets and Hundi collections have been increasing at 20% to 30% every year since 2010, the year the temple services went online – allowing devotees to book darshans and laddus on the internet .
The Tirumala Laddu today is so popular that devotees queue up to buy boxes to take back home, even as massive versions of it are given as offerings to the lord on special occasions.
So what makes the Tirumala Laddu such a craze? Is it just the flavour and the popularity of the temple – the mahima of the Lord Balaji .
The numbers are staggering. Officials of the temple board said that about two crore ladus were sold in 2015, and they expect the sales in 2016 to go up to three crore. The 175-gram regular laddu is priced at Rs 25, while the 750-gram special laddu is priced Rs 100.
“The secret behind the massive venture is both the devotional craze and also the marketing technique of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, One can say it is world famous there is no doubt about it.
About 600 temple employees and 200 Srivari Sevaks are involved in marketing the laddu. During peak hours, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam opens counters at various locations of Tirumala, including at the Srivari Temple, to sell laddus. A special complex for laddu sale and distribution is located , where more than 60 counters make brisk sales of the famous sweet.
For those who can’t make the trek to Tirumala for the laddus, the temple board also sells the sweet at its temples in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi – and even in the US and UK, where the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam offered support for building and operating temples dedicated to Sri Venkateswara.
Devotees visiting the temple can book additional laddus online, while registering for the darshans, or can buy them using tokens at the temple.
On the other hand “Vada is given only to Arjita Seva ticket holders and during Brahmotsavam all such sevas are cancelled,” “Those prasadams were not produced.” The Arjita Seva is a special temple service that devotees can attend for a price that runs into thousands of rupees. For some of the rituals, there is a waiting list of 10-15 years.
