Waiting Line Management at Tirumala, Large Pilgrimage Centre in India

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Tirumala, one of the largest and busiest pilgrimage centers in the world, had witnessed a continuous increase in the number of visitors it received. The average number had gone up from 20,000 per day in 1990s to 65,000 per day in 2012. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which administered the Tirumala temple along with providing a few supporting services to the pilgrims, experienced great difficulty in managing the darshan1 queue2. With the objective of reducing the waiting line, TTD approached academic consultants and had been devising different strategies of reducing waiting line from the 1990s. Though there was lot of improvement, the mayhem still continued.

Tirumala, one of the largest and busiest pilgrimage centers in the world, is a hill station located in an extension of the Western Ghats in India. Traditionally, it was called Venkatadhri, the residing place of Lord Vishnu³ /Lord Venkateswara. According to experts, it was one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, with a history of around 2000 years.

The temple was built by Pallava king Thondaiman. Many South Indian kings donated huge sums to develop and maintain the temple and the town. During times of invasion, they safeguarded the temple. Based on the recorded history, the rituals and daily routines in this holy temple had been performed without a break for more than 1000 years.⁴

Over a period of time, Tirumala evolved into an epicenter of Vaishnavism⁵ . For instance, many prominent Hindu religious institutions either had a presence in Tirumala or had made the place their headquarters. Tirumala attracted a large number of visitors from all over the country irrespective of their religion, caste, nativity, social status, or professional affiliation. Over a period of time, the number of visitors to the temple and the town had increased tenfold.

To administer and control the Tirumala temple and the surrounding temples in the Tirumala area, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD)⁶ committee was set up by the then government in 1933. In 1951, the TTD administration was entrusted to a Board of Trustees. The members and an Executive Officer were appointed by the government. As of 2012, TTD controlled 12 temples and their sub-shrines, and had about 14,000 employees.⁷ TTD provided facilities and services to make the experience a unique and rewarding spiritual one for the prilgrims to Tirumala.

TTD was majorly involved in: Planning, monitoring, and executing (transfer) a road transportation network from Tirupati to Tirumala and vice versa; Managing pilgrims and providing accommodation to them; Managing tonsure⁸ facilities; Providing free meals to up to 25,000 people every day; Managing the waiting line or queue of pilgrims and ensuring that they have an orderly darshan; Managing the distribution of more than 150,000 laddus⁹ every day.

Apart from these, TTD had been involved in many other activities like providing sanitary and other facilities to pilgrims, arranging tour packages for pilgrims to visit nearby tmples in and around Tirumala, etc. As of 2012, TTD had evolved as a social institution providing financial support to other educational institutions and temples.

Pilgrimage to Tirumala - Next Page>>

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1] Darshan is a Sanskrit word meaning 'sight', vision, apparition, or glimpse. That is it means literally seeing. It is most commonly used for "visions of the divine" in Hindu worship, e.g. of a deity (in image/statue/idle form), or a very holy person.
2] Since 1970s, Tirumala had witnessed a significant number of visitors to have darshan of Lord Balaji. With the lack of infrastructure to hold pilgrims, the temple witnessed serpentine queues outside the temple, which, during the peak season, circling the 4 mada streets as well.
3] According to Hindu mythology, there are three principal deities, Siva (the destroyer), Vishnu (the protector), and Brahma (the creator).
4] N. Ravichandran and I.V. Subba Rao, "A Process Oriented Approach to Waiting Line Management in a Large Pilgrimage Center in India: A Case Study," Research and Publications Indian Institute of Management, W P No. August 2, 2005
5] It is one of the major branches of Vedism along with Shaivism, Smartism, and Shaktism. It is focused on the veneration of Vishnu. Vaishnavites, or the followers of the Supreme Lord Vishnu, lead a way of life promoting differentiated monotheism, which gives importance to Lord Vishnu and His ten incarnations. The oldest religious text in Vedic, the Rigveda, describes Lord Vishnu as the Supreme Deity in Vishnu Sooktham
6] In 1933, the Madras Legislature passed a special act which empowered the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Committee to control and administer a fixed group of temples in the Tirumala-Tirupati area, through a Commissioner appointed by the Government of Madras. This committee was assisted by a Religious Advisory Council for religious matters and a Ryots Advisory Council for the management of TTD's estates.
7] "TTD Management," www.tirumala.org (Accessed on July 19, 2012)
8] Head Tonsure is given as an offering or a vow to Lord Balaji by both men and women devotees.
9] Laddu, or Ladoo, is one of the most important offering and prasadam given to devotees at the Tirumala Tirupati Temple. It is a spherical-shaped sweet made of flour and sugar. It is a customary duty of a devotee returning from Tirupati Balaji Temple to distribute 'laddu' as prasadam to his neighbors, friends and relatives. Prasadam means literally a gracious/mercy gift. It is considered to be a food sanctified or scared by the Lord. In contemporary Hindu religious practice in India, the desire to get prasada, offer to vow to the God and have darshan are the major motivations of pilgrimage and temple visits.

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