Giri Pradakshina: Ten years of oil, for the feet that walk the Simhachalam hill
Thousands of devotees will walk barefoot on the annual Giri Pradakshina around the foothills of the Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Simhachalam, Visakhapatnam on Tuesday (July 28, 2026), setting out from the ‘Tholi Pavancha’, the first of the steps leading up the hill. The boiling goes on until the volume reduces by half, so that the medicinal properties concentrate, before the warm oil is bottled and portioned out for distribution. The work takes the better part of a day.Shri Satya Sai Baba devotees stir a mix of oil, black pepper, garlic, vetiver root and camphor over a slow flame near the Sivalayam at NAD Junction in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
- ▪Thousands of devotees will walk barefoot on the annual Giri Pradakshina around the foothills of the Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Simhachalam, Visakhapatnam on Tuesday (July 28, 2026), setting out from the ‘Tholi Pavancha’, t
- ▪The boiling goes on until the volume reduces by half, so that the medicinal properties concentrate, before the warm oil is bottled and portioned out for distribution.
- ▪The work takes the better part of a day.Shri Satya Sai Baba devotees stir a mix of oil, black pepper, garlic, vetiver root and camphor over a slow flame near the Sivalayam at NAD Junction in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
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Thousands of devotees will walk barefoot on the annual Giri Pradakshina around the foothills of the Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Simhachalam, Visakhapatnam on Tuesday (July 28, 2026), setting out from the ‘Tholi Pavancha’, the first of the steps leading up the hill. Along the 32-km route, volunteers will work through the day and night to keep them moving, with stalls offering water, buttermilk, tea and snacks.Near the Sivalayam at NAD Junction here, a group of Shri Satya Sai Baba devotees has spent the past few days on a service it has offered for a decade: preparing traditional herbal medicated oils to be massaged on the aching feet and muscles of devotees who walk the trail.Labour of devotionThe oil is prepared by boiling a mix of indigenous herbs, roots and oils,…
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