About Tirumala
Once a large congregation of sages set to perform Yaga on the banks of River Ganga. Sage Narada descended at the venue and asked them to which deity they wants to offer the Yaga Phala. The sages requested Sage Bhrigu, to solve the ticklish problem. Sage Bhrigu undertook the holy task of identifying the most ideal among the three Chief Divine entities to receive the benefits of Yaga.
As a part of his divine mission, Sage Bhrigu first went to the abode of Lord Brahma and found him busily engaged with his spouse Goddess Saraswati chanting Vedas, taking no notice of his arrival. Having felt Insulted, the sage went in a huff to the’abbde of Lord Siva. There again he found Siva sporting with His Consort Goddess Parvathi, without taking note of his arrival. Enraged over this insult here again, Bhrigu left for Vaikuntha, the celestial abode of Lord Vishnu in the milky ocean. The fury of Sage knew no bounds when he saw Lord Vishnu enjoying privacy with Goddess Lakshmi ignorant about the arrival of Sage Bhrigu. Disgusted and having felt humiliated over this insult, the infuriated Bhrigu kicked Lord Vishnu on His chest, the dwelling place of His divine better half Goddess Lakshmi. Lord Vishnu immediately got up, massaged the Rishi’s foot and pierced his third eye, which was embedded underneath the foot of Bhrigu that was responsible for his ego and behave In an indifferent way with the Trinities. Sage Bhrigu who realised his grave sin was pleased with this kind gesture of Lord even to a sinner like him and returned to the Rishis and advised them to dedicate the Fruits of Yajna to Lord Vishnu whom he declared as the most ideal of all the Trinities.
Meanwhile Goddess Lakshmi who got piqued at the insolent behaviour of the Rishi, kicking at the scored spot, the Lord’s bosom, Her favourite abode and with fury left Lord and descended at Kolhapur. Unable to bear the agony of separation, Lord Vishnu left Vaikuntha and began search for Goddess Lakshmi. In course of time He trots into Seshachala and settles down on the mountain in a huge ant-hill.
At the request of Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Brahma and Lord Siva takes the form of a cow and a calf while Lakshmi transforms herself as a cowherdess and sells the cow and calf to Chola King who in turns hands over its care to a cowherd.
The celestial cow used to empty her udder on the ant-hill under which Lord Srinivasa stayed, thus quenching His hunger every day. The King warns the cowherd upon the complaint by his queen, for the holy cow not yielding enough milk. The cowherd follows the cow and gets surprised when he witnesses the cow emptying its udder in an anthill. Anguished by this, the cowherd throws his axe at the cow, but it hits the Lord who raises from the ant-hill in a bid to save the cow: The cowherd dies on the spot on seeing the bleeding Lord. The cow reaches the Royal Court of the Chola King with the blood stains all over its body. Astonished by this, the lord sends his guard to get to know about the incident. On receiving the details from his guard, the King reaches the spot and gets astonished. On seeing the King, Lord curses him to become a demon as the King being the ruler has to take•the responsibility for the fault of his servant. However, at the King’s behest, Lord promises him that the King would be absolved for the curse when the Lord gets married with Goddess Padmavathi at a later stage.
Lord Srinivasa, then traverses over the Seshachala ranges and finally reaches Venkatadri hills. Sri Varaha Swamy permits Him to reside on the hills and asks Vakula Devi who is already in his service, to look after Lord Srinivasa. Vakula Devi was none other than the incarnation of Yasoda the foster-mother of Lord Krishna, in her previous birth, to whom He had promised Darshan as Kalyanamurti in His next incarnation. In the meanwhile, Padmavati, the daughter of Akasa Raja, grows into a comely maiden, meets the Lord in a garden one day and offers Her heart to Him. Lord Srinivasa meets Akasa Raja and his queen Dharani Devi, in the guise of a fortune teller and appraises that their daughter Padmavati will be married to Lord Srinivasa and tells the king to honour Vakula Devi who would come to him with the marriage proposal.
Later Vakula Devi approaches the king on the mission and the king after consulting his queen Dharanidevi requests sage Suka to fix an auspicious occasion for the celestial wedding. On the day of Vaisakha Sukla Dasami, the wedding of Lord Srinivasa (Venkateswara) and Goddess Padmavati was celebrated with great splendour, attended by host of devas and kings.