The temple of Sri Venkatesvara reached the acme of its glory in the region of the illustrious emperor, Krishnadevaraya of the Tuluva of third dynasty of Vijayanagara (1509-1529). Sri Venkatesvara was the patron deity of this monarch. On every important occasion the Raya visited Tirumala and obtained the blessings of the god. His first visit to the temple was on 10th February, 1513. Inscriptions record eight visits of this monarch in 1513,1514,1515,1517,1518 abd 1521 to the temple, each of which resulted in substantial and valuable presents being made to Sri Venkatesvara.
Krishnaraya was succeeded by his brother, Achyutaraya (1529- 1543). Achyuta was confined to the palace at Chandragiri during the period of his brother’s rule. Immediately after the death of Krishnaraya, he came to Tirumala and had himself coronated there,
I m in)- bathed with water poured out ofthe conch held in the hand of ‘.i i Wnkatesvara. He too was a great devotee of this god. The c in|H-i or visited Tirumala in 1533 A.D. accompanied by his queen, V.u ,n laji and son, Kumara-Venkatadri, and presented many valuable H-wels lo Ihe god. He presented some more costly jewels on another in ( ision (111-17). On 26th December 1535,he instituted a special li 11 v al, named the Lakshmidevi festival, for Sri Venkatesvara and 111 ‘.consort, Alarmelmanga.
Sadasivaraya succeeded Achyutaraya. He seems to have v rated Tirumala on two occasions. He came here once on 3rd
I (binary, 1554 and again in July of the same year and made some jiil I-, lo the temple. The rarity of his visits and comparative poverty cl Insgilts is due to the fact that he was dominated by Aliya Ramaraya .Hid was therefore a virtual back number though for some time he w .1-. kept up as the sovereign. Later, Ramaraya was the real ruler .mil Sadasiva had to languish in prison.
