'Tirupati god was originally offered pongal, North Indian pilgrims brought laddus'

The laddu is synonymous with Tirumala-Tirupati today. But the evolution of prasadam there took some interesting detours: sectarian competition, wars between Hindu rulers, and evolving trade. In the process, Tirumala-Tirupati’s prasadam transformed from a simple gruel of ghee and rice to a savoury pongal accompanied by vegetable curries—and finally, to the sweet, heavy laddu.

Sources:

Sastry, Sadhu Suramanya. Vol. I—Early Inscriptions. Sri T.T. Devasthanam Epigraphical Series. Madras: Tirupati Sri Mahant’s Press, 1931. Available online at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet....
Thimappa, Valmiki. "Tirumala: A Study of Pilgrimage Tourism." PhD Thesis, Sri Venkateswara University, 2013. Available online at https://archive.org/details/shdgnga.t...

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The laddu is synonymous with Tirumala-Tirupati today. But its evolution took some interesting detours: sectarian competition, wars between Hindu rulers, and evolving trade. Watch Anirudh Kanisetti explain the growth of Tirumala and its prasadam tradition in ThePrint #ThinkingMedieval.

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