THE GOD OF BIG THINGS

YADADRI TEMPLE

- Amarnath K. Menon

Normally when you think of the kind of conflicts the bifurcation of a state can bring, you think of tangible, material things—say, natural resources or a massive, built-up aggregate of human endeavour like a capital city. No one thinks of cultural heritage and the abstract value this form of capital affords. The 2014 division of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh into an eponymous coastal state and landlocked Telangana was consumed by disputes about Hyderabad. But if the rump state of Andhra Pradesh lost the Pearl of the Deccan, it also retained something else: Tirupati. Losing out on one of the holiest—and richest—shrines of Hinduism has evidently been a matter of resentment for Telangana. Enough to goad Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) into an expansive project to create a counterpart. It has taken Telangana five years and Rs 1,800 crore to open the doors of the refurbished Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadagirigutta, 70 km east of Hyderabad. Heritage that’s new? Odd as that may sound, KCR’s first prayers at the shrine would have surely involved a fervent hope that this becomes a mega pilgrimage centre rivalling the famous hill shrine that lies 500-plus km to the south.