Important Facts About Tirumala Temple Laddu

Tirumala Tirupati Temple Laddu History:

Here are some unknown facts of our Tirumala Laddu on the occasion of its 305th year.

1. The Architect of the laddu is Late Kalyanam Iyengar Garu. He introduced Mirasidari system to prepare laddus. Those preparing Laddus in the kitchen(Potu) were called as Gamekar Mirasidari till 2001 AD.
   
2. The reason for such a popularity of Laddu among pilgrims of Tirumala is its unique flavor, characteristics and never compromising the quality of Laddus ever since it all began distributing 300 years ago, though the size of Laddu has reduced over the years.
3. The Lord’s kitchen is called as Potu. In this Potu, Prasadam was prepared with only firewood. From 1984, the use of LPG started as there was a spurt in the number of laddus required every day.
4. On special occasions like Ugadi, the staff prepares special laddus and offer them to God. Till now, the biggest laddu offered to Lord Venkateswara is 32 kg. It was prepared by special hereditary priests known as Archakas in the special temple kitchen.
5. In the Tirumala temple, 3 types of Laddu’s were being prepared.
   • ASTHANAM LADDU: Prepared on special festive occasions and can be distributed to special guests like President, Prime Minister of India and other countries.
   • KALYANOTSAVAM LADDU: This Laddu is distributed to those who took part in the Kalyanotsavam and Arjitha Seva Grihastas.
   • PROKTHAM LADDU: This is small Laddu which is distributed to the common pilgrims in Tirumala Temple. The weight of the Laddu is 175 grams.
6. The list of ingredients and the proportion in which they are to be used is called Dittam. Ingredients are being used for the preparation of Srivari Laddu in the Tirumala temple as follows.
   

   1	First Quality Rice	8,000
   2	Sugar	7,200
   3	Cashewnuts	700
   4	Cardamom	80
   5	Cow Ghee	3,400
   6	Sugar candy	160
   7	Raisins / kishmish	350
   8	Gram flour	3,600

7. Tirupati laddu got the patent rights under the Geographical Indications of Goods Registration and Protection Act in 2009. The TTD had applied for GI with the Chennai-based Geographical Indication Registry to avoid its black-marketing by hawkers and middlemen.
8. Once, The 500 pilgrims were interviewed at Tirumala for their opinion on the taste of Laddu. Distribution of pilgrims according to their level of satisfaction on the taste of Srivari Laddu.