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Apr. 2, 2015
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Tirumala Tirupati: Wait a Moment

For almost five hours, Ramesh and Vasantha Gupta had been in line at Tirumala Venkateswara Temple,
the most visited Hindu temple in the world. Pilgrims would pass in front of the shrine of the Hindu god Lord
Venkateswara—a view they would have for only a few seconds. The temple had become renowned for both
its spiritual attraction and its long waiting lines. Two queue complexes were constructed to handle the
thousands of devotees waiting in line for an average of 10 hours for a free visit. In an effort to shorten
waiting times, technology enhancements had been added over the years, as had fees to shorten the wait for
those willing to pay extra.

The Guptas had purchased a darshan1 that allowed for a shorter waiting time, but even with that, the line
was long and required patience. Once inside the temple, their actual waiting time turned out to be about
average for an early January day in 2015. And although they felt fulfilled after their darshan, Ramesh left the
temple wondering how the process could be improved.

Lord Venkateswara’s Temple

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple (see Exhibit 1) was located in the hill town of Tirumala, on a hill called
Venkatadri, just outside the city of Tirupati and approximately 90 miles northwest of Chennai, India. Believed
to be roughly 2,000 years old, the temple was among the oldest—and richest—religious structures in the
world. Over the years, numerous kings had provided hefty sums of money to maintain, grow, and develop the
temple and surrounding town. Lord Venkateswara (sometimes called Balaji, Govinda, or Srinivasa) was the
temple deity—a god believed to confer prosperity.2 A holy-water tank called Swami Pushkarini (see
Exhibit 2), likely built in ancient times, provided water for bathing and washing away pilgrims’ sins. The
temple proper included a traditional temple building, modern queue complexes, and various accommodation
facilities for pilgrims. Without regard to religion, socioeconomic status, or station in life, the temple was
visited by an average of 83,674 pilgrims each day (see Table 1).3 Numerous Hindu religious institutions were
headquartered or had a presence in the vicinity of Tirumala.

1 A darshan was what those practicing Hinduism called the spiritual experience of beholding a holy being or sacred object. At Tirumala

Venkateswara Temple, pilgrims could buy a darshan, which meant less time waiting in line to fulfill their viewing, or accept a free darshan, which more
people did and which meant longer waits.
2 Sangram Parhi, “India’s Safest Temples,” Sunday Standard, October 20, 2013 (accessed Jan. 20, 2015).
3 Parhi.

The characters in this case are fictional and the information was drawn from public sources. This case was prepared by Stephen E. Maiden (MBA ’01);
Gerry Yemen, Senior Researcher; and Elliott N. Weiss, Oliver Wight Professor of Business Administration. Copyright  2015 by the University of
Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation.
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Table 1. Average number of pilgrims at Tirumala each each year.4

Year Number of Pilgrims
2005 15 million
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2007 20.5 million

2008 27 million
2012 35 million
2013 40 million
Pilgrims primarily visited Tirumala seeking a darshan. Devotees passed in front of the deity and had a
view for 10 to 60 seconds, though they were only directly in front of Lord Venkateswara for about one
second. The passage leading to the darshan point allowed six or seven lines of pilgrims to go through the
darshan process simultaneously.

By 2015, there were two major kinds of darshan available at the temple. There was a free darshan
(Dharma darshan), which on average took about 10 hours from the time one entered the Vaikuntam queue
complex. Approximately 60% of pilgrims took a free darshan. During festivals, holidays, weekends, and
special occasions, it could take as long as a whole day to pass in front of the deity, while during low seasons, it
might take only an hour. The second major type of darshan was paid: The Sudarshanam darshan cost INR505
($0.80) and on average took about three hours. The Sheegra darshan cost INR300 ($4.80) and took roughly
30 to 90 minutes. There were also special queues for senior citizens (75 years and older) and young children
(3 years and under), who could be accompanied by one other person.

The Guptas Visit Tirumala

Literally translated, Tirumala meant “holy hills,” for the seven peaks that represented the seven heads of
Hindu god Adisesha. Ramesh’s ancestors had been coming on pilgrimages to visit this home of Lord
Venkateswara, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu,6 for centuries. As a young boy in rural India, Ramesh had
asked his father what it was like to behold the gold statue of Lord Venkateswara. Time stood still for Ramesh
as the wise man smiled and tilted his head up to the sky. “It is a feeling in your gut, a presence. It is an energy.
This divine peace beyond reach of the most beautiful poetry, my son. But there is no use explaining it. It is
for each man to know. You will see one day when you take your darshan before the god.”

But fate had other plans. When terminal cancer struck his father the very next year, Ramesh was packed
up and shipped to the United States to live with his uncle. After initially struggling to adjust to life in
suburban Washington, DC, Ramesh ultimately thrived in America and came to love it. After earning a
computer science degree, Ramesh found himself happily climbing the ladder as an IT professional for the
U.S. federal government. America had also introduced Ramesh to his wife, Vasantha; together they had a girl
and a boy, 10-year-old Deepika and 7-year-old Satya. But all along, Ramesh never forgot Mother India. Her
pull was ancient, gravitational. She sang to him. And for the past year, Tirumala had called him. His father’s
soaring words about the temple had always accompanied Ramesh in his life, but lately they had grown louder.

4 Data sources: Jerome Taylor, “Faith, Hope and Vanity,” Independent, December 23, 2006; A. Srivathsan, “Plan for a New Complex and Vehicle

Scanning Station in Tirumala,” Hindu, October 26, 2008; A. Srinivasa Rao, “Fragile Terrain Threatens Tirumala Temple,” Mail Today, July 16, 2012;
“Free Laddus for Tirupati Pedestrian Pilgrims,” United News of India, November 11, 2013 (all accessed Jan. 23, 2015).
5 INR = Indian rupees.
6 According to Hindu mythology, there were three principal deities: Shiva (the destroyer), Vishnu (the protector), and Brahma (the creator).

Venkateswara could be translated as “supreme god who destroys the sins of the people in this material world.” It was believed that Vishnu, out of love
for his devotees, incarnated as Lord Venkateswara.
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When he awoke one morning from a lucid dream of his father urging him to visit the temple, Ramesh sprang
into action. That very morning, he booked two seats on a New Year’s Eve flight to Tirupati Airport.

Vasantha had her own memories of the temple, and the thought of the serpentine queues worried her. As
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a young girl in Hyderabad, India, she had visited Tirumala once and been spiritually transformed by the
place—the sheer beauty of the copper images on the walls, thick wooden doors, gold-plated everything, and
the breathtaking chamber leading to the utterly awe-inspiring, ornate statue of the lord. When she closed her
eyes, Vasantha could feel the presence of that visit—but she also remembered the lines. The pushing, the
pulling, the yelling. Her family had waited for 24 hours in hungry, thirsty conditions that day in 1980. She had
never forgotten the sight of her mother and her grandmother pushed together, helplessly buffeted about by
the ebb and flow of the crowd. And then there were the smells. “But much has changed since then,” Ramesh
had implored. In the months leading up to the trip, he built his case, researching the many improvements that
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) had made over the years.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams

The TTD Act of 1932 established the TTD committee and gave administrative control of the temple to
its 7 members (it later became 15), who were directed by a commissioner appointed and paid by the
government. Initially formed solely to manage the temple property, several government acts over the years
broadened the scope of TTD to include the study and dissemination of religious practices and knowledge as
well as the general promotion of Hindu culture. For example, before entering the temple, it was mandatory
for non-Hindus to sign a declaration form stating that they had faith in the presiding deity, Lord
Venkateswara. In 2014, TTD employed roughly 14,000 people to maintain the 12 temples and sub-shrines
under its control.7

TTD made money primarily through pilgrim offerings and by supplying lodging, transportation, food,
and other services. TTD planned, monitored, and executed the road network and footpath from Tirupati to
Tirumala while providing free meals to up to 10,000 pilgrims twice a day in 2014.8 Many pilgrims also used
the tonsure service, whereby a barber shaved the pilgrim’s head as a sign of devotion (see Exhibit 3). More
than a ton of hair was collected daily and later sold to international buyers to use as hair extensions and in
cosmetics, netting INR239.68 crore9 in 2013–14.10 Aside from the hundi11 collection, in which devotees
offered gold as a token of their love for the god, tonsure service was the second-highest income-generating
activity in the temple. Donations represented more than one-third of TTD’s income in an annual budget of
approximately $320 million. This amount increased manyfold over the years, alongside the growth of the
temple’s popularity. In August 2014, TTD deposited 1,800 kilograms (kg) of gold (approximately $76 million
worth) with the State Bank of India.12 TTD had approximately 4,335 kg of gold ($184 million) in a variety of
banks and paid each of its 10,000 contract workers approximately $1,300 to $2,300 per year.13

7 Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, “TTD Management,” http://www.tirumala.org/TTDBoard.aspx (accessed Jan. 20, 2015).
8 Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, “Sri Venkateswara Annaprasadam Trust,” http://www.tirumala.org/
SRIVENKATESWARAANNAPRASADAMTRUST.aspx (accessed Jan. 20, 2015).
9 One crore equaled INR10 million.
10 “Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Expects Rs 220 Crore from Hair Sale,” Deccan Chronicle, December 6, 2014,
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141206/nation-current-affairs/article/tirumala-tirupati-devasthanams-expects-rs-220-crore-hair-sale (accessed Jan.
27, 2015).
11 A hundi, essentially a donation box, was placed both inside and outside the temple.
12 “TTD Deposits 1,800 kg Gold with SBI,” Hindu, August 3, 2014, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/ttd-deposits-1800-

kg-gold-with-sbi/article6275894.ece (accessed Jan. 27, 2015).

13 “Salary Hike for 10,000 TTD Contract Employees,” December 17, 2011, http://www.newindianexpress.com/
states/andhra_pradesh/article235524.ece?service=print (accessed Jan. 27, 2015).
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Aside from overseeing operations and finances, TTD was involved in various social, religious, literary,
and educational activities within the temple’s state of Andhra Pradesh and in greater India. TTD had also
taken up widespread social welfare activities, including providing free food and shelter to orphans, physically
challenged citizens, the elderly, and the poor. It provided free education to deaf and hard-of-hearing students,
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gave free medication to pilgrims, and ran various welfare trusts.

Visiting Tirumala and the Queue Problem

Pilgrims who arrived at Tirumala often went first to the TTD-maintained tonsure facility, which had 500
barbers operating on a three-shift basis performing 15,000 tonsures per day. Pilgrims also would go for a bath
in the holy-water tank in the middle of Tirumala before joining the darshan queue. Some would choose to do
the darshan before partaking in the tonsure or holy bath. After the darshan, pilgrims usually donated money
at the hundi. Upon leaving the temple, pilgrims received laddus14 from TTD vendors and were given a free
meal before they headed home.

When the Guptas landed at Tirupati Airport on January 2, 2015, the first sign of trouble was the throng
of people crammed into it. Ramesh winced when he saw the crowd. After the 30-hour, three-stop flight from
Dulles International Airport, Ramesh and Vasantha were exhausted. Following two more hours of pushing
and wading through crowds at the airport and taxi lines, the couple finally relaxed into their Tirupati hotel
room. But the most difficult part of the pilgrimage still lay ahead: Tirumala’s legendary lines. (See Exhibit 4
for a map of the area.)

The previous day, some 210,000 pilgrims had visited Tirumala15 because it happened to be Vaikunta
Ekadashi, which translates as the date that “the gate to the Lord’s Inner Sanctum” was opened. Ramesh
blanched as he read in the newspaper that dozens had suffered injuries in a near-stampede as thousands of
TTD staff along with police and volunteers struggled to manage the crowd. Of the 210,000 pilgrims amassed
around the temple, roughly 80,000 managed to get a darshan with Lord Venkateswara that day.16

Crowd control was something TTD had had much experience with over the years. In the mid-1970s,
TTD made improvements in access to Tirupati and Tirumala that spiked pilgrim inflow to the temple. With a
lack of infrastructure to hold the pilgrims, however, serpentine queues formed outside the temple, rain or
shine. Waiting times vacillated wildly according to the season, and pilgrims in line could only hope and guess
about the queue ahead. As a result, TTD built hundreds of cottages on the hills in Tirumala for pilgrims to
stay in.17

In the mid-1980s, still seeking a solution for crowding, TTD began work on the Vaikuntam queue
complex, which would hold 17,000 people. In 2000, a second queue complex was constructed to handle an
additional 30,000 devotees. The old queue complex became the entry point for all paid darshans, and the
newer queue complex housed pilgrims seeking a free darshan. Each complex was a semicircular building that
opened into a TTD-maintained garden. The buildings had three levels, and there were 19 compartments on
each level. The compartments were huge halls that accommodated between 500 and 750 people. Pilgrims
could sit and watch religious programs on a TV, which also telecast rituals from inside the temple. There were
toilets available for use and refreshments for sale. In the newer complex, free food (sambar rice and curd

14 Laddus were ball-shaped sweets made of flour, minced dough, and sugar that were served at religious and festive occasions.
15 “On New Year, Tirumala Resembles War Zone,” Times of India, January 2, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/On-New-
Year-Tirumala-resembles-war-zone/articleshow/45724177.cms (accessed Jan. 27, 2015).
16 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/On-New-Year-Tirumala-resembles-war-zone/articleshow/45724177.cms.
17 By 2015, TTD had built about 5,000 cottages.
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rice18) and coffee/tea were served every couple of hours. Each room had two doors—one to allow pilgrims in
and one to let them out into the corridor leading to the temple. The corridors connected to the southeast end
of the temple by an overhead bridge. Once the gates exiting the halls were opened, the devotees joined the
actual queue to reach the sanctum sanctorum (the shrine itself), where the idol rested.
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Pilgrims could obtain a ticket or token at any of the many queue offices situated near the main shrine, at
the local rail and bus stations in Tirumala and Tirupati, or at TTD offices in other major Indian cities. In
March 1999, TTD launched the Sudarsanam Token System, which replaced the physical queue with a virtual
queue. At the time of registration, biometrics (fingerprints and a photo) were taken, and a tag showing the
date and approximate time the pilgrim should report for darshan was given for entry into the queue complex.
Once the devotee collected the identification tag, he or she was free to visit other temples and places of
interest nearby until reporting time. Over the years, TTD improved the algorithm that predicted the waiting
time, taking into account the duration when darshans needed to be stopped for VIPs, processions, or
overnight breaks. This system was supposed to eliminate con-artist middlemen—but there were still ways to
bypass the queue. For example, children could be hired (for a fee) for those seeking to enter through that
special line.19

The Guptas decided to walk the five miles to reach the queue complex for their 9:00 a.m. darshan.
Occasional statues, along with wild rabbits and deer, interrupted their quiet trek through the lush hillside
forest. Pilgrims, most barefoot, dotted the path, making Ramesh self-conscious of his sneakers. Midway up
the steep 2,500 steps to the plateau village of Galigopuram, Ramesh struck up a conversation with a man who
was burning camphor with each step in happy reverence. The man smiled and said: “I visit here at least 9 to
10 times per year and walk every time. It is the only way to do it.” Ramesh said it was his first time and
something he had waited his whole life to do.

When the path evened out, Ramesh and Vasantha entered Galigopuram and sat down to have water and
tea at a café. They overheard talk that the queues were already bad. It was taking 15 hours for free darshans
and 7 hours for paid darshans. Ramesh had already paid INR300 for their special entry tickets, but they still
needed to register at the ticket counter and get their biometrics. When they arrived at the counter, the TTD
ticketer said, “Everything is still a bit backed up because of the celebrations yesterday, but you will get a good
darshan today—go to the Vaikuntam complex to get in the correct queue for Sheegra darshans, which is
running three to four hours today, I am told.” Ramesh brightened, figuring it could have been worse.

After another hour and a half, they arrived in Tirumala, exhausted but excited. People were everywhere.
It seemed there were lines just to get into line. They overheard that the wait just to buy tickets was two hours.
Ramesh and Vasantha bought bottled water, freshened up in the public bathrooms, and rented a locker to
drop off their sneakers and mobile phones for the day. They walked to Pushkarani Lake and had a holy dip,
then visited Varahaswamy Temple before finally making their way to the Vaikuntam complex to get in line
for darshan with Lord Venkateswara.

The entrance to the Vaikuntam queue complex was manned by police, security, and temple officials who
manually checked tickets before allowing pilgrims inside the complex. Signage indicated the location of the
compartments to which devotees should report for their darshan. When devotees reached their compartment,
their ticket was checked again, along with their fingerprints, which had to match the biometric data provided
at the time of ticket purchase.

18 Sambar rice combined lentils, vegetables, and rice in a stew or chowder. Curd rice was a dish of unsweetened yogurt mixed with boiled rice.
19 “Queue Jumpers,” Huddersfield Examiner, July 17, 2009 (accessed Jan. 23, 2015).
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Many pilgrims found the long waiting periods in the queue complex tiring and restrictive, and they
disliked being locked inside for hours. There was terrific uncertainty about when their darshan would take
place. And where the snakelike lines were concerned, pilgrims were provided little information about what lay
ahead.
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Reaching the Temple Complex

Once inside, Ramesh and Vasantha were pleased to find snacks and milk offered free of charge. They
picked up their tickets for complimentary laddus and settled into their seats. Many eyes in the big room were
on the TV above, which showed devotional chants, amplifying the numinous feeling in the room. Time crept
by. After 40 minutes, Ramesh and Vasantha began to get restless. Just how long would this take? Almost on
cue, a speaker overhead announced that their compartment’s occupants had just half an hour more to wait
before they were to join the temple queue. The room buzzed with relief and anticipation. A man named
Arjun Chopra seated next to Ramesh said that once they left the compartment, all the queues merged before
the temple entrance, and it would only take an hour or so before they would experience darshan. “I wonder
why they merge all of the lines right away after we leave this waiting area,” Ramesh said. “We paid for the
INR300 darshan tickets to have some sort of an advantage.” Chopra explained:

We are getting a significant benefit over the 15-hour waits today for a free darshan. But once we
enter the temple, everyone is equal in the eyes of God. This is why the lines merge when they do. It
has always been this way. I come here many times each year and have become quite familiar with the
flow and efficiency of the place.

I would say that TTD has done well, but the challenge is increasing. The growth in pilgrims has been
hard to keep up with. The flow of devotees each hour, each day, is not similar—like New Year’s Day,
when there were so many people that there was a three-mile line outside of the Vaikuntam queue
complex. When the crowds get like that, things always go wrong. But TTD has estimated that a
comfortable flow of 4,000 visitors an hour—which is not for the full 24 hours, but about 16 or 17 at
best—is optimal.20

Inside the Temple

The glittering, gold-plated gopura, which housed the idol directly beneath its gilt dome, was called
Ananda Nilayam, or “the abode of happiness.” To get there, Ramesh and Vasantha followed their new friend
Chopra into the merged queue, now four people wide. Temple staff were exhorting the pilgrims forward.
Inside the main gate, the pushing grew. It was constant motion, a slow but steady creep. The line snaked
around through the temple. It took 45 minutes just to reach the entry to the innermost compound wall, in
which the statue of Lord Venkateswara was located. Chopra turned to Ramesh and Vasantha and said:

When you get to the shrine, you will find that there are three platforms at different heights—16
inches, 7 inches, and the shortest one, at ground level. This is a recent improvement, so the mass of
people can all see the entirety of the Lord. When I came many years ago, I got only the briefest
glimpse of His head. I read that it has also improved the throughput of pilgrims from 4,000 per hour
to 4,200 to 4,300 per hour.

20 A. D. Rangaragjan, “Queue Flow Predictability Holds Key to Proper Darshan,” Hindu, December 4, 2014, (accessed Jan. 22, 2015).
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As they passed into the hall leading to the holy inner sanctum, a tremor shot through Ramesh’s body.
Guards yelled and those in line pushed, but he didn’t notice. For almost a minute, the idol was in his sight as
the line snaked in a U shape. At the closest point, Ramesh was able to see the god completely, from lotus feet
to crown. The skin on Ramesh’s face tingled. He felt a warmth, a love that stretched for eternity. Spacious
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oneness. A blessing.

Tirumala in the Next 100 Years

As the glow from his darshan faded during the half an hour it took to snake his way to the temple’s exit,
Ramesh began to think about the queueing process. He and Vasantha paused to make an offering at the
hundi and picked up the free prasadam (food) offered to nourish the pilgrims. Ramesh turned to Vasantha and
Chopra and said, “My darshan was incredibly powerful, but surely there must be ways to improve the
process.” He suggested increasing the size of certain entrances and the path through the inner sanctum.
“Change will not come easily,” Chopra said. “To start knocking down walls in the temple would offend many
people. It is against the Agama Sastra [Vedic scriptures], which dictates the temple rituals.”

After exiting the temple, the trio stopped to pick up their complimentary laddus. The flavor of Tirumala’s
laddus was world-famous. The couple hugged Chopra farewell. “I pray in the future that we will bring our
children,” Ramesh said. “And that the growth in this holy place can be safely managed for the next 100
years.”
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Exhibit 1
Tirumala Tirupati: Wait a Moment
Tirumala Venkateswara Temple
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Source: “A View of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple,” posted to public domain under

Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) by “Adityamadhav83,” October 29, 2012,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/A_View_
of_Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple.JPG (accessed Jan. 27, 2015).

Exhibit 2
Tirumala Tirupati: Wait a Moment
Swami Pushkarini

Source: “Swami Pushkarini,” posted to public domain under Creative Commons (CC BY-
SA 2.0) by “Mydhili,” April 24, 2007,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Swami_Pushkarini.jpg (accessed
Jan. 27, 2015).
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Exhibit 3
Tirumala Tirupati: Wait a Moment
Tonsure
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Source: “Tonsure tirupathi,” posted to public domain under Creative Commons (CC
BY-SA 2.0) by “Jamdirt631,” October 3, 2013,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Tonsure_tirupathi.jpg
(accessed Jan. 27, 2015).
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Exhibit 4
Tirumala Tirupati: Wait a Moment
Map of Tirumala
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Source: “Town map of Tirumala Tirupati,” posted to public domain under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) by “Logicwiki,” June 20, 2009,
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Thirumala_map.png (accessed Jan. 27, 2015).