(State Desk)

Hundreds and thousands of  devotees visit Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara (also known as seven Hills)  to have darsan of presiding deity.

On weekends and special occasions the number shoots up to a lakh and over.

They all return home happily  with almost half-a-second darsan of Lord.

But, how many of them are aware of several  interesting apects of Tirumala ?

In fact few of us are aware that the famous Tirupathi Laddu is introduced in to Lord’s prasadams less than 100 years ago.

According to T.V.R.K.Murthy, more popularly known by his pen name Viswapathi wrote Srivari Darsan which contains interesting artciles related to Lord Sri Venkateswara and Tirumala. 

In fact, Srivari Darsan, is widely acclaimed as one of the best books on Lord Sri Venkateswara in India and abroad.

It is added to the collections of Widener library of the prestigious Harvard University.

The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library is Harvard University's flagship library. Built with a gift from Eleanor Elkins Widener, it is a memorial to her son, Harry, Class of 1907, an enthusiastic young bibliophile who died in  the Titanic .

It had been Harry's plan to donate his personal collection to the University. Mrs. Widener fulfilled her son's dream by building a facility of monumental proportions, with over 50 miles of shelves and the capacity to hold over three million volumes.

Widener holds one of the world's most comprehensive research collections in the humanities and social sciences.

Srivari Darsan is also kept in permanent collections of Bodleian Library of prestigious Oxford University,London. 

The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library with over 12 million printed items.

First opened to scholars in 1602, it incorporates an earlier library built by the University in the 15th century to house books donated by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester.

Since 1602 it has expanded, to keep pace with the ever-growing accumulation of books, papers and other materials. It is said that every second someone interacts with their electronic collections and every 14 seconds someone visits one of their libraries and every 21 seconds someone borrows one of their books.

Srivari Darsan is also kept in collections of Library of South Asia Institute of prestigious Heidelberg University,Germany. The book is also added to the collections Library of Cornell University, U.S.A. and British Library, London.

Obviously, a jubilant Murthy expressed his happiness over the great response the book is receiving internationally. He has earlier written 25 devotional books, of which 14 are on Lord Sri Venkateswara. Among them Sri Venkateswara Vratha kalpam written in 2005 has become very popular with the devotees and is now translated in to 11 languages including French and Italian.Milliins of devotees across  the world read it every saturday.Even  Europeans are reading Sri Venkateswara vratam regularly.

Murthy says it gives him great pleasure that all his books are read by many peetadhipathis ( religious heads ) too. A copy of Tamil edition of  Sri Venkateswar vratha kalpam is kept in British library,London. He is distributing all his books free to devotees.

Viswapathi, is an M.Tech. in Elec.Engg.and worked in industry and teaching till 1998. He also a well known cartoonist and has drawn more than 5,000 cartoons in several news papers and magazines. His cartoons were exhibited in International Comic Strip Festival held in Switzerland in 1987.

His cartoons are also selected for World Telugu Conference Cartoon exhibition, the first conference being held in the state of Telangana from 15th – 19th December. His recent cartoon collection book Sincerely Yours received wide acclaim.

Many eminent personalities including the then Vice-President Mr.Hamid Ansari, the then defence minister Sri Manohar Parrikar and several others appreciated his cartoons. He is in to Vedic logo designing since 1998 and has selected company names and designed logos for more than 5,000 companies worldwide. Interested devotees can freely download his books from www.lordofsevenhills.com.