Local tradition holds that the temple is 5,000 years old. However, the earliest written references occur in Tamil works such as the Tolkappiyam (c. 1st–4th century ce) and Silappathikaram (c. 5th–6th century). Puranic texts of the first millennium posit that the temple was constructed by a king Tondaman, who excavated a termite mound and found under it a shrine to Vishnu. For this reason the temple’s main devotional image (murti) of Venkateswara is considered to be svayambhu (self-manifesting). Various rulers over the centuries contributed to the temple’s architectural development and oversaw its management. In 1932 it was placed in the hands of a corporate oversight board, made up of local leaders, called the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which has managed the temple’s functioning and expanded its global presence, particularly through affiliated temples in the Hindu diaspora and online ritual offerings.
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