The golden temple of Sripuram (Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

: ஸ்ரீபுரம்) is a spiritual park situated at the foot of a small range of green hills in a place known as "Malaikodi" in the city of Vellore

Vellore

Vellore It is considered one of the oldest cities in South India and lies on the banks of the Palar river on the site of Vellore Fort. The city lies between Chennai and Bangalore and the Temple towns of Thiruvannamalai and Tirupati...

 in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The temple is at the southern end of the city of Vellore, at Tirumalaikodi.

The salient feature of Sripuram is the Lakshmi

Lakshmi

Lakshmi or Lakumi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity , light, wisdom, fortune, fertility, generosity and courage; and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm. Representations of Lakshmi are also found in Jain monuments...

 Narayani temple or Mahalakshmi temple whose 'Vimanam’ and ‘Ardha Mandapam’ have been coated with gold both in the interior and exterior.

Construction

The temple is located on 100 acres of land and has been constructed by Vellore-based Sri Narayani Peedam, headed by spiritual leader Sri Sakthi Amma also known as Narayani Amma. The temple with gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 covering, has intricate carvings and sculptures in gold. The lighting is arranged in such a way that the temple glitters even during night. The construction of the temple was completed on August 24, 2007.
More than 1500 kg of gold was used to build this temple. The LED lighting on the ridge of the roof of the star path is lit up at night so that one can witness a star on the earth.

Salient Features

Sripuram-Sri Lakshmi Narayani Golden Temple is the largest Golden temple in the world, with over 1.5 tonnes of gold used. All the gold work was done by artisans specializing in temple art using gold. Every single detail was manually created, including converting the gold chunks into gold foils and then mounting on the gold foils on copper. Gold foil from 9 layers to 15 layers has been mounted on the etched copper plates. Every single detail in the temple art has significance from the vedas.
Sripuram design represents a star-shaped path(Sri chakra), positioned in the middle of the lushgreen landscape, with a length of over 1.8 km. One has to walk along the star path to reach the temple in the middle, which is laid by messages from Sri Sakthi Amma and from different faiths and spiritual leaders.

How to reach

For International devotees: It is closer to Chennai/Bangalore International Airports.
Road transportation: Plenty of buses are available from Chennai/Bangalore/Tirupati and other major towns.

External links

• How to reach Sripuram
• The official website of sripuram which has some images.
• Vellore Golden Temple - Complete Information about Golden Temple.

• http://www.sripuram.org
• http://www.narayanipeedam.org/
• http://www.sripuramgoldentemple.com