Chilkoor Balaji Temple

Chilkur Balaji Temple is an ancient Hindu temple of Lord Balaji on the banks of Osman Sagar in Rangareddy District in Telangana. It is one of the oldest temples in the Hyderabad Dist earlier now in Rangareddy Dist, built during the time of Madanna and Akkanna, the uncles of Bhakta Ramadas.^[1]

Chilkur Balaji Temple
Religion
Affiliation	Hinduism
Deity	Lord Venkateswara
Location
Location	Chilkur Village, Gandipet, Ranga Reddy District, Telangana
State	Telangana
Country	India
Shown within Hyderabad
Geographic coordinates	17°21′30″N 78°17′55″E
Architecture
Completed	14th century
Website
chilkurbalaji.com

Gopuram at Chilkur Temple

C.S. Rangarajan is the current head priest of the Chilkur Balaji Devasthanam.^[2] The temple has no hundi and does not accept any money from devotees.^[3] The temple also has no green channel or privileges for VIPs.^[4] The only other such Hindu temples are the Jalaram temple in Virpur (Rajkot), Gujarat and "Ramanuj Kot", a temple in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.^[1] This temple fought and won the right to stay out of government control.^[3]

Circumambulations

During a visit the devotee goes through the usual rituals of prayer, including 11 circumambulations of the inner shrine, and makes a vow. Once the wish is fulfilled devotees then walk 108 times around the sanctum sanctorum. The majority of wishes by devotees are visa related, thus Chilkur Balaji is also referred to as 'Visa' Balaji.^[5][6]