TRIPATTY or Tirupati, in lat. 13° 88' N., and long. 79° 27' 50" E., a town, a hill, and a Hindu pagoda, 80 miles west of Madras, in the N. Arcot district. Tripatty is divided into two parts, the Upper Tripatty and the Lower Tripatty. The former is a small village, with a temple, situate on a fertile and elevated valley between two hills of moderate height. The construction of the teinple above is very simple, but it is the richest shrine in Southern India. It has jewels and other things worth 50 laklis of rupees, and in cash it has an equal amount. It is here that pilgrims of all creeds and castes flock every day from all parts of India. The number of pilgrims on ordinary days amounts to two or three hundred ; but during the annual festival, forty or fifty thousand people gather together on the hill. The name of the up-hill idol is Streenivasen, and of the one below, Govindaraja Perumal. The pilgrims always first ascend to the Upper Tripatty Bill, perform their vows, and then come down, pay a visit to the idol below, and return to their homes. The principal part of the vow in the up hill temple consists in shaving completely the heads of men and women indiscriminately. A very large part of the pilgritns who visit this place walk up the hill, but the rich go in small portable cots. The annual festival held here is very large, and to it (in 1772) is attributed the first recorded cholera epidemic in India. Up to 1843, the pagoda was under the management of the British Government, who derived a consider able revenue from the offerings. Now, however,
the whole is given over to the mahant or abbot ; and in 1873, at Surgeon-General Balfour's sug gestion, the mahant established a dispensary at Lower Tripatty. In the year 1870, a party of police ascended thc hill in search of a person accused of murder ; and Mr. Gribble (Cal. Rev.)" described it as a second - rate temple. The idol is of stone, about seven feet high, with four arms, holding in one right hand a chakra, and in the left a chank shell. The other right hand points to the earth, and the other left hand holds a lotus. Its early history is not known, but it is supposed to be of ancient date. Hindus visit it as pilgrims front great distances, usually in bands and of all ages under a leader, the members calling out Govinda,' a name of Vishnu. Offerings are made with every possible object and of every degree of value,—gems, jewels, gold and silver cloths, always the hair of the bead, and from tho lame a silver leg, from the blind a gold or silver eye. Its revenues are derived from offerings (kaniiikai), arjitum or' receipts, for purifications (abishekam), offerings (naividium), and processions (wahanum), and there are villages and lands held by the officers of the temple. The chief period of pilgrimage is during the Brahmantsowin, or legend ary nine clays' celebration of the idol's nuptials with Padinavati, daughter of a king.