Ananda Nilayam

Ananda Nilayam (Abode of Happiness) is the glittering gold-plated gopuram of the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple.

All the gold was removed and painstakingly replaced; the damaged levels of the roof below were fixed with cement and extra strength metal grouting reinforcement.

During this period in the mid-1960s, no worship could be performed in the Sanctum Sanctorum and so the "power" of the chief deity was shifted into a temporary idol carved and placed elsewhere in the temple.

It took five years for the carpenters and builders to get dies of the nooks and crannies of the roof and finally copper plates were cast into those shapes.

[3] Saint Vyasa Teertha, who lived here in the 16th century, was said to have attained moksha by steadfastly worshiping and meditating on the little image of Lord Venkateswara on the northeastern corner of the Ananda Nilaya Vimanam.