Under tight security, ‘divine umbrellas’ from Chennai reach Tirupati for Tirumala Brahmotsavams

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TTD security personnel screen the silk umbrellas brought from Chennai for the Brahmotsavams with metal detectors at Alipiri, the foot of the Tirumala hills, on Friday. | Photo Credit: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

The 11 divine umbrellas made of silk, used in the Tirumala temple processions, arrived in Tirupati from Chennai on Thursday (September 17, 2026), following the decades-old tradition.

The Hindu Dharmartha Samithi Trust undertakes the procession, titled “Tirupati Thirukkudai Utsavam”, every year, in which the milk-white umbrellas of pure silk are offered to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).

Tamil Nadu has a long-cherished link to the Tirumala Brahmotsavams in the form of two divine offerings to the temple. One is the set of umbrellas; the other is the garland worn by Goddess Andal at her temple in Srivilliputtur in southern Tamil Nadu. The garland is carried all the way to Tirumala to adorn the processional deity, Lord Malayappa Swamy.

As is the ancient practice, special prayers were offered to the umbrellas at the Sri Chennakesava Perumal temple in the Pookkadai area of north Chennai. Raghuvarendra Theertha Swami of Sri Bhimanakatte Math, Thirthahalli, Karnataka, flagged off the procession of umbrellas in the presence of the trust’s representative R.R. Gopalji.

Security personnel run metal detectors over one of the silk umbrellas from Chennai as devotees hold up its fringe at Alipiri in Tirupati on Friday. | Photo Credit: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

As the procession passed through N.S.C. Bose Road, Ayanavaram, Villivakkam, Padi, Pattabhiram and Tiruninravur, thousands of devotees gathered on the roadside to offer “harati”.

Beyond the city’s outskirts, the procession received a grand reception in villages across Tiruvallur district, which borders Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. Several hundred people joined the procession in every village, chanting “Govinda, Govinda...” and walked alongside for a distance, mostly up to the next village.

The contingent reached Tiruchanur, on the southern outskirts of Tirupati, on Thursday evening and handed over two umbrellas to the Sri Padmavati Ammavari temple, to be used during the annual “Kartheeka Brahmotsavams” in November. The remaining nine were presented to the Tirumala temple, to be used in the current Brahmotsavams for the ‘Garuda Seva’ procession on Saturday (September 19, 2026).

Security for the procession has been tight since 2013, when it became the target of the extremist organisation Al Umma.

In the case then known as ‘Operation Puttur’, two men were arrested at Puttur, on the Chennai-Tirupati national highway, on the charge of plotting to plant bombs in the umbrellas to target the Tirumala temple.

The Tamil Nadu police had arrested Fakruddin, then on the most-wanted list, in Chennai on October 4, 2013; he revealed the hideout in Puttur from which the Tirumala-bound umbrellas were being targeted.

A joint team of the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh police reached Puttur early on October 5, 2013, and arrested the two men holed up in a house after an operation that lasted nearly 10 hours.

Against this backdrop, the umbrellas were thoroughly screened by TTD security personnel at Alipiri, the foot of the Tirumala hills, on Friday (September 18, 2026).

The umbrellas used to be carried on the shoulders up the Alipiri footpath to Tirumala, but the TTD has done away with the practice recently, as it posed a security risk as well as inconvenience to other devotees trekking along the path. The nine umbrellas were therefore taken up the ghat road in a sealed van and handed over to TTD officials.

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