The first available reference to the temple of  Sri Venkatesvara on Tirumala (Chittoor district) is literary; it occurs in the sangam poetry of Tamil Nadu, ascribed to the first three countries of the Christian era. Then the early Alvars, or vaishnavaita saints, who lived and sang from about the fourth century to the ninth, refer to Vengadam, the original name of Tirumala. A jain tamil work, 'Silappadhikaram' , probably of the late Sangam age, shows that Vengadam was held in reverence even then.

Tirupathi the town at the foot of the hill, and in that in Triruchanur, about 5km from Tirupathi, where stands the fane of the Goddess, padmavathi. These provide a detailed account of the hill temple and of the others from the ninth to the seventeenth century.

It is probable that, to start with, there was an image of the Lord set up in a small mandapa on the hill. The earliest inscription found in the hill temple records a gift by a prince who lived in the first half of the ninth century to the temple of sri venkatesvara in Tiruchanur, in the plains. This was probably a 'proxy' fane. Further gifts are recorded in the epigraphs of the Pallavas and the Cholos . A Pallava queen , Samavai, presents very costly jewels, while in the reign of Rajaraja 1, the great cholo(985-1014) , another queen gifts a superb gold jewels . It is under the Rays of Vijaynagar that the temple enjoyed its great days . In particular, two of them, Krishnadeva (1509-30) and his successor, Achyutha (1530-42), were much devoted to it and showered splendid gifts on it.

Krishnadeva visited the temple for the first time in February 10, 1513, and gifted a crown of nine jewels, a a three-stringed necklace containing pearls and precious stones, and twenty-five silver plates. His queens, Chinnaji and Tirumaladevi, each gave a gold cup . It was during his second visit on may 2 of the same year, that he made the most splendid and most numerous of all his gifts. These included a sword set with the diamond, ruby and sapphire, a sword sheath, a pendant, two gold strings and three crowns for the processional images.

On July 6, 1514, during his return journey to Hampi after having captured Udayagiri fort & defeating Prataparudra, the gajapati king of Kalinga, Krishnadeva performed the splendid ceremonial of the "Karnatakabishekam" , or bathing the Lord's image with gold coins. He also gave three stringed ornaments. Queen Chinnaji gifted a necklace, and Queen Tirumaladevi, a jewel set with the diamond, ruby, emerald and pearl.

On his return from another victorious expedition against Kalinga on October 25, 1515, the emperor gifted an enormous jewelled halo, or Prabhavali . On july 2, 1517, in thanksgiving for yet another victorious campaign against Kalinga, during which he planted a pillar of his fame in Simhardi Potnuru, near Simhachalam(see below), he spent 30,000 gold coins in order to gild the Vimana, and gave two jewels. He seems to have made yet another Pilgrimage to Tirumala on October 16, 1518. An inscription in Kamalapuram, near hampi, records this visit, but none on Tirumala or in Tirupati. Queen Tirumaladevi accompanied him. His last visit was on February 17, 1521, when he gifted four costly jewelled ornaments. Queen Tirumala- devi gave an ornament with nine jewels. In addition, many magnates of the empire made gifts .

Achyutha was equally devoted to the Lord. His first act on accession to the throne was to come to Tirumala & crown himself. He then went to Sri Kalahasti and crowned himself here again . He frequently revisited the two temples, the the most famous in his empire.

Though the Vijaynagar power was broken in battle in 1565, the devotion of the Rayas continued. After removing there capital to Penukonda, they ruled from Chandragiri, contiguous to Tirumala. Their devotion to the Lord may be judged from the fact that they would not take there first principal meal of the day untill they had learnt that worship had been completed in the temple. To ascertain this they erected huge gongs in succession. One of these gongs still stands on Chandragiri . 

There were troubled times after the final disappearance of the Vijayanagar power in the seventeenth century. But the British, who re-established law & order, followed scrupulously a policy of non-interference with local religions & customs. It was after the country's independence that the people's devotion became magnificently explicit through large donations to the temples treasury. These have made the temple the richest in the country.   With its funds, a university, many colleges, learned institutions and social welfare organisations are being maintained.

The pilgrimage to Tirumala has been a long established institution in Andhra Pradesh, karnataka and TamilNadu . Nowadays there are many pilgrims from the other states too. To them Lord is Balaji. The pilgrim, on his arrival in Tirupathi, can walk upto Tirumala by rock steps which date from early times or take a bus or car on the magnificent, winding ghat road laid in the 1940's. According to tradition, he should offer worship first in the temple of tradition, he should offer worship first in the temple of Lord varaha, which stands on the bank of  the Swami Pushkarani, the tank which adjoins the Sri Venkatesvara fane, after bathing in the tank. During certain hours of the day access to the Sri Venketesvara temple is open from very early in the morning to very late at night.

Thousands of pilgrims are present every day; the concourse, of late, is particularly numerous on the first day of the new year. Entry is regulated by queues. It is a sight, one which testifies to Hinduism's inherent strength among all classes of people, to watch the queue winding and extending outside the temple and through many buildings nearby.

After worship, most devotees make their offerings in the treasury. Having one's head tonsured is an age-old custom. The concourse of  pilgrims is growing day by day. as a result, accommodation and other services like transport are at a premium. But the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams, which is in charge, has been meeting the situation quite well. Its task calls for considerable skill in organisation.

The temple is 126.5 metres long and 80 metres wide. Three Prakaras, or enclosures, surround the central shrine of Sri Venketesvara. The original must have been limited to the sanctum and perhaps a mandapa or two in front. In the thirteenth century it was considerably expanded. Then further structures continued to be added from time to time so that today today it occupies 0.9 hectares.

Together with the four streets running around the temple, the Swami Puskarani, another tank which is now a flower garden, and the private or secular structures on the streets, the entire area measures 6.5 hectares. Some of these structures are monasteries erected by royal and noble patrons.

the original temple consisted of the sanctum, a squre mandapa called the sayana mandap, a pillared verandah named the Mukkoti Pradakshina and another mandapa of the name of Rama Meda. The Mukkoti Pradakshina is considered the first Prakara, so that the temple has three of them. But it is open only on one day in the year . Vaikunda Ekadesi Day. Originally, the Rama Meda and the three pathways, to the south, west & north, of the Mukkoti Pradakshina must have formed a continuous circumambulatary path. But in a reconstruction, of about 1262-1265, this passage was closed and the Rama meda made a closed room.

Today the sanctum stands at the western end of a complex of structures. The first is an open hall, borne on sixteen pillars. It is called the Tirumamani Mandapa from two huge bells which are placed there. It was built in 1417 by a resident of Chandragiri.

From this mandapa to the next, the Snapana mandapa, the entrance is by way of a golden door, the Bangaru vakili. on either side of the entrance are two dvarapalakas, Jaya and Vijaya. The door is plated with gold. The famous morning hymn, the Suprabatham, the singing of which is a feature of Hindu customs today, is recited in front of this door.

The snapana mandapa, which has four central pillars, belongs to Vijayanagara times. Then, past the Rama Mede and the Kukkoti Pradakshina, the pilgrim comes to the sayana mandapa. This is a squre room. The stone step which stands before the sanctum is called the Kulasekharapadi, after a great Vaishnava saint. The sanctum walls belong to the eighth or the ninth century . There is reason to believe that there are double walls here. There is only one main image , or mula murthi, in the sanctum, that of Sri Venkateswara. This is the only Vaishnava temple in the country where this is so. There are six individuals portable images and a group of four. the image of Bhoga Srinivasa, of silver , was consecration is perhaps the oldest here. The image of Ugra Srinivasa might be the earliest one in the temple, apart from the main one. It seems to have been the image taken out in processions in very early days. The Koluva Srinivasa image is brought to the Tirumamani mandap every morning for a rite. The image of Sri Malai Kunia Ninra Perumal. shortened to Sri Malayappan . is first mentioned in an inscription dated 1339. The earliest epigraphical reference to the image of Sri krishana is of 1100. The group of four images represents Sri Raghunatha, Sita, lakshmana and Sugriva. On the rama Meda there are images of hanuman and Angada. Finally, in the sanctum there is an image of Sudarshana, or Chakratalvar.

There is a tradition that it was Sri Ramanuja who changed this temple from saivaita to Vaishnavaita. There are also some suggestions that the Lord represents Subramania or Shakti. " The Lord of Tirumala" says a scholar, " is not a mere sectarian God, though the outward form is undoubtedly that of Lord Vishnu only... All the upacharas or services rendered to this idol are in effect rendered to the eternal Lord. This is the real secret of the Lord of the Seven Hills,"

The complex of structures, including the sanctum, stands in a pradakshina. It contains three shrines, an ornate mandapa, and a number of rooms. The shrines are of  Sri Varadaraja, Sri Narasimha and Ramanuja. The kalyana Mandapa is a typical Vijayanagar structure, with a beautiful inner mandapa borne on four pillars. In a room on the northern side were discovered hundreds of copper plates, on which are inscribed the compositions of a great composer, Annamacharya, in praise of Sri Venkatesvara. A fine portrait of the composer is on the walls. His compositions have been edited and published. They are very popular with musicians and listeners. An inscription of 1469 refers to Sri Narasimha in the shrine here.

The inner, or second , gopura which leads from the Vimana Pradakshina to the first prakara, called the sampangi Prakara, or Pradakshina, is similar to the outer one in design. There are a number of inscriptions in the outer walls. In general, the oldest epigraphs in the temple occure on the basements of the gopuras, those next in time on the inner faces of the prakara walls, and those of the fifteen and sixteenth centuries on the outer faces of these walls.

The  first prakara is much bigger and contains a number of structures. On either side of the first gopura entrance there is a mandapa. Each wing has a row of  four pillars . The mandapa, called the Krishnaraya Mandapa, contains some celebrated portrait bronzes. The finest are of Krishnadeva, Titumaladevi and Chinnaji, their names inscribed on them. Another emperor, Tirumala, and his consort also stand here. There is, further, a portrait of Venkatapathi, still another of the emperors. In addition, there is group of three, Todarmal, his mother Matha Mohan De, and his wife Pitha Bibi. He was a general under Muslim rulers at the begining of the eighteenth century. All the figures are in attitudes of respectful veneration, facing in the direction of the Lord in the sanctum .

In the neighboring Ranga Mandapa there is a shrine there is a shrine permanently closed where, it is said, the main image of Sri Rangananth, of Srirangam (see below), was preserved for a time in the fourteenth century because the muslims were occupying that great temple. A third mandapa in this prakara, the tirumal Raya or Anna Unjal mandapa, was originally built in 1473 and extended to its present dimensions in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. A fourth structure here is the Aina mandapa.

In the open courtyard of this prakara stand four graceful and historic mandapas at the four corners . These were built by saluva narashima(1486-1491) in the name of himself, his queen and his two sons. he arranged for the processional image to be taken to each when Prasadam would be offered offered to the devotees. abutting the second gopura is a mandapa which contains the flagstaff and the Balipitha. the entrance go[pura is of five tiers and rises to a height of 15m. On its basement are inscriptions of the thirteenth century.

Outside the temple , facing it from the right, is the Thousand Pillar Mandap, which was built with the annual income from a village that saluva Narasimha endowed to the Lord in 1472. A fine museum of the temple's artifacts is housed here. Sometime ago music concerts used to be given here. in a straight line from the temple's entrance there is a shrine of Sri Anjaneya .

The history of Tirupathi, the town at the foot of the Seven Hills, is naturally associated with that of Tirumala. There is a tradition that the original town , or perhaps village, stood nearer the hills than Tirupati does today .There was a temple of Sri Parthasarathi in a neighboring area, and to it ramanuja added another of  Sri Govindaraja. The image , it is said used to be in the Chidanbaram temple, in TamilNadu (see below) , but was ordered to be removed by a saivaite Chola king . The part of the tradition that blames the Cholo has no basis, for there is ample epigraphical evidence that he was no bigot. However this might have been, Sri Ramanuja installed the image of Sri parthasarathi and enlarged the original temple. This might have occured about the temple. The temple is a big one. On its outer walls there is a huge gopura built about 1628.

A second temple in Tirupati is that of Sri raghunath.  It was built in 1480-1481. The only Saivaita fane in Tirupathi. The Kapilesvara, appears to belong to Cholo times . According to tradition , pilgrims in very olden days used to begin ascending the hills from a point near this temple.

About 5km from Tirupati is Tiruchanur, anciently called Tiruchokinur. It contains the temple of  Sri Padmavathi, the consort of Sri Venkatesvara. A large fane, it has many shrines. A few metres from it stands the temple of  Sri Parasaresvara. This Saiva fane contains many old inscriptions.

While the vast majority of Pilgrims ascend the hills from Tirupati, there are two other mountain paths from the plains. One leads from Mamandur in Cuddapah district. The other, covering a short distance of some 6.5 Km, but with no steps most of the way, only huge boulders piled up, leads to Tirumala from Mangapuram and Chandragiri. This was the route to Tirumala Vijayanagar capital in the sixteenth century. There is a lovely, almost Hoysala-like, temple of Kalyana Venkatesvara  in Mangapuram. Chandragiri contains two places, the Raja Mahal & the Rani Mahal . The former is a magnificent structure, in the fully developed secular vijaynagar style. There is no basis for the story that the order permitting the English east India company to build a fort in Madraspatnam, which as fort St. George became the nucleus of the British empire in India was issued here. 

On the Madras road from Tirupati, there is a fine temple narayanavanam with a lofty gopura, which can be seen from Kilometres around . It is traditionally associated with the Tirumala & Tiruchanur temples. Pilgrims from Madras usually visit the hill temple of sri Subramania in Tiruttani, which is one of the way. Tiruttani is an ancient village & contains a number of temples. One of them is the last two to be built by the Pallava kings. On the hill, the temple of Sri Subramania, one of what are called in Tamil the 'Arupadai Veedus' , six celebrated temples of Lord Muruga, is of very old date. Near the hill is a hamlet where, in the last century, Dr. sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the great philosopher and a president of India, was born.

The Tirupati pilgrimage has been a time honoured institution. It attracts thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the country. The queues they form in the Tirumala temple, winding in & out of many buildings and structures inside & outside the fane, so that one might easily need three hours at the least to obtain darshan of the Lord, are remarkable sights, hardly paralleled anywhere in India. The Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthamans, which administers the affairs of the Tirumala and its allied temples, is a vast organisation.