Puttaparthi
Overview
Puttaparthi is a small town located in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, 55 km away from the district headquarters. It is located on the banks of Chitravathi River and is surrounded by the scorched and rocky mountains. This town was the residence of the notable spiritual leader, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Eminent as the birthplace of this very legend, the town has become the divine pilgrimage for all the people from different parts of the world. Though this small town does not offer any beautiful vistas of nature, but it has been acclaimed as a tourist place of religious significance after the establishment of Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram in 1950 by Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The most beautiful aspect of the town is the temple complex that houses a multitude of magnificent attractions. It makes every visitor awestruck. It has all the amenities of a metro city.Puttaparthi was formerly known as Gollapalli. The history of Puttaparthi revolves around Sai Baba. For the outside world, Puttapathi means Sai Baba himself. It is because of this saintly man that the town is furnished with all modern amenities and infrastructures like Airport, Railway Station, Super Speciality Hospital and a chain of educational institutions. The common languages spoken in the town are Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, English and Hindi as it is the home of different people coming from different parts of the world.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Shri Sathya Sai Baba was born as Sathyanarayana Raju on November 23, 1926 to a couple named Meesaraganda Easwaramma and Peddavenkama Raju Ratnakaram in Puttaparthi. From childhood days, he was a brilliant child with extraordinary qualities. At the age of 14, he proclaimed himself as the incarnation of Sai Baba, the holy saint from Shirdi and had died eight years before Sathya was born. By the advent of time, this boy became a well known spiritual leader with staunch followers all across the world. He built a temple for his devotees in 1944. It is now referred as ‘Old Mandir’. In 1954, he also built a small free general hospital in Puttaparthi mainly for the poors. He was a man of unbelievable spiritual powers with restorative and magical abilities. He preached everyone the noble ideology of universal religion. He was the man of wisdom and was regarded as Living God by his followers. His teachings were mainly based on the principles of truth, peace, love and non-violence. He died on April 24, 2011 due to respiration-related problems. He once also said that he would be born again eight years after his death as Prema Sai Baba in Mandya district of Karnataka. His noteworthy followers are APJ Abdul Kalam, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Narendra Modi, Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Aishwarya Rai among others.Tourism
The main attraction of the town is Sai Baba’s Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram. Apart from this, Puttaparthi has many places depicting historical importance as well as modern marvels. Major tourist attractions are:Chaitanya Jyoti Museum
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Space Theatre
Spiritual Museum
Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium
Sri Sathya Sai University
Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri Music College
Anjaneya Swami Temple
Sathyabhama Temple
Shiva Temple
Wish Fulfilling Tree
Meditation Tree
Gopuram (Ganesh Gate)
Village Mosque