TIRUMALA, JUNE 09, 2025: The annual three-day ‘Jyestabhishekam’ rituals began on a religious note at the temple of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala on Monday.
For the festival, also popularly known as Abhidheyaka Abhishekam, the priests performed special rituals at the kalyana mandapam at Sampangi Prakaram inside the temple complex twice. ‘Sata kalasa pratista’, ‘nava kalasa avahana’, ‘shanti homam’, ‘kankana pratista’ and other religious formalities were also conducted.
The rituals were followed by ‘snapana thirumanjanam’ to the processional deities of Lord Malayappa and his two consorts, Sridevi and Bhudevi, amid chanting of sacred verses from the religious texts.
During the festival, the deity’s golden armour (kavacham) is ceremoniously removed and replaced with diamond, then pearl armours on the first two days, and then the gold armour is re-adorned on the final day. This is done to protect the ancient ceremonial idols from wear and tear due to daily abhishekams.
