Sannidhi Golla(First Darshan At Tirumala)

Early in the morning, usually at around 2 AM, The 'sannidhi-golla' (cowherd) will go to the residence of the archakas on the north side of Swami Pushkarini, the temple tank. The golla escorts the priests who have been allotted the duty in the sanctum sanctorum that day. The archaka would have by that time had his morning bath, completed his nitya-karmas, including worship of his own deity.Along with archakas descendents of Annamayya family,Ekangi and other temple officials with music of drums, bugles and horns will reach the main entrance of the temple.The 'golla' will be holding a fireband in his hand,no body will not come in front of sannidhi golla.

 The system is triplicate lock system with archaka, Jiyyangar and temple authorities having one key each. The archaka will first symbolically place his key in the hand of the Dvarapalaka on the right of the Bangaru Vakili. The priest will do pranama to dvarapalakas near the Bangaru Vakili. Then he will take the key from the dvarapalaka and seal is broken and the doors of golden vakili will be opened uttering suitable mantras.All of them will enter into the temple and priests will do the common rituals.The descendents of Annamayya family will sing the suprabatham to Srivaru. This process will be continued through out the year,but only in Dhanurmasam Thiruppavai is receited to Srivaru instead of suprabatham.

It is believed that Brahma conducts worship every night for the Lord at Tirumala. Every night before closing the doors of the Garbhagruha five gold cups of water with the spices specified for puja as per agamas, added to them along with other puja articles are left at the feet of the Lord so that Brahma may use them for the worship of Lord in the night (Brahmaradhana). The devotees who go for Vishvarupadarshana get the Tirtha believed to have been used by Brahma & other Gods for the puja offered in the night.

The seva lasts around 30 mins and usually starts at 3:00 a.m (2.30AM or earlier on Fridays). Suprabhatam is performed in Ekantam and no tickets are issued to pilgrims during the month of Jyestha (May–June). In the month of Margazhi ( December–January), the Suprabhatam verses are replaced with the 30 verses of Tiruppavai. 

Who is Sannidhi Golla ?

Before Lord Venkateswara became a statue he used to stay in an anthill under a tamarind tree.A cow unable to see the Lord suffering from hunger used to give milk every day .The cow actually belonged to the cow herd of the king. The queen wished to give the milk of that particular cow to her baby. But after giving milk to the lord in the ant hill, the cow could not supply anymore milk.

The king got a complaint that the shepherd is drinking all the milk of the cow. The king became very angry, got him tied to a pillar and thrashed him severely. The shepherd pleaded the king to give him one chance to find out where the cow was going and why it was not giving milk. The king finally released him with a warning that the cow should give milk the next day or he should explain why the cow is not giving milk and if neither of these things happened he is going to die.

The next day the shepherd began to carefully observe the cow. After some time he noticed the cow leaving the herd and going into the forest alone. He followed the cow covering himself with a black blanket and carrying an axe. Like every day the cow began to give milk to the anthill. Seeing this the shepherd became very angry. He went near the cow without making any noise and striked it with his axe. But the axe missed its aim as the cow moved aside and it hit the Lord in the anthill. The Lord stood from the anthill wiping his blood and shouting at the shepherd for trying to kill the cow, which satisfied his hunger like his mother. Seeing Lord Venkateswara with a bright face and blood oozing from his head the shepherd repented for his act and he died there seeing the Lord with fear in his eyes.