Origin Story - Key donors and Events

Acquiring the Land for the Temple Premises

To provide prayer facilities to all the devotees the entire land of approximately 337 Sq. Yards wad registered in the name of the Samajam by the Pattedars and Phahani holders late Peddinti Narsimha Reddy and late Peddinti Malla Reddy under the guidelines of Sri Peddinti Ganga Reddy the founder President of Sri Sai Siva Shakthi Samajam. Permission was also obtained from Kukatpally Municipality in the name of the Samajam.

Foundation Stone and Shramadanam

In the December 1996 the foundation stone was laid by Sri D. Shankaraih, a Sai Devotee from Srinagar Colony, Hyderabad. Once again Shramdanam and donations were sought from the residence of Sai Krishna Colony. The excavation of earth for construction of meditation room of 625 Sq. feet was supported with the donations of Rs. 10000/- by Dr. Byrappaneni Ramesh Babu Managing Director of Medwin Hospitals, Hyderabad. Donations were collected from people from walks of life and also by going on “Bhiksha” in all the colonies of Old Bowenpally and New Bowenpally keeping of Photo of Shirdi Sai Baba and singing bhajans. , The construction of the temple was started with major donations of Steel through late Sri Pisupati Purna Chandra rao of Mallikarjuna Colony, Cement and Grills by late Sri B.Vasudev of Old Bowenpally cross roads, Bricks from Sri Samala Raghava Reddy, Metal from Sri B.Laxma Reddy, Sand from Sri P.Janga Reddy (Raju) S/o Peddinti Sal Reddy and Peddinti Ganga Reddy. Teak Wood was donated by Sri J.G. Murali, Superintendent of Police then posted in Hyderabad, Marble flooring by Sri Adala Raghava Reddy through Sri B. Ramana Reddy the then Vice President of Sri Sai Shiva Shakti Samajam. The short fall wood was given by Sri Srinivas Rao of Mourya Timbers, Old Bowenpally. The main door was given by Sri B. Sriramulu of Venkateshwara Gears Kukatpally through Sri Garlapally Surya Prakash of Indian Airlines Hyderabad. The entire woodwork was done through the shramadanam of Sri Govindh Chary Carpenter of Indian Airlines along with the Carpenters sangam of Old Bowenpally.

Idols, Cement and Consecration

For idols Rs. 28000/- was donated by Sri Varaprasad Rao through Mr. R. Mallikarjun of HAL Colony the present Treasurer of the Samajam. Rs. 10116/- was donated by Sri S.V. Prithvinath along with 100 bags Cement who was then working in Indian Airlines. The architecture was supported to the tune of Rs. 50000/- by Patnam family of Hashmathpet. Rs. 20000/- was given by the Goenkas through late Sri Pisupati Purnachander Rao of Malllikarjuna Colony. Rs. 1 lakh was donated by Mantravadi Jamil rai of Marredpally through his brother Mantravadi Kishore Kumar of Indian Airlines, Hyderabad at the time of construction Rs. 35000/-was given by Smt and Sri Upadrashta Jaganathapandit of Sai Krishna Colony Smt and Sri N. Venkat have donated Rs. 8000/- for idol of lord Krishna. Dr. S. Madhava Reddy of Ramya Nursing home have donated Rs. 20000/- for idol of Ram, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman. Sri M. Rangaiah Goud of Mallikarjuna Colony have donated Rs. 25000/- for idol of Lord Dattatreya and the Sivalingam was donated by Sri D.V.V.S.S. Prasad of Indian Airlines and also resident of Sai Krishna Colony, along with cement bags, as required, during construction of the temple. Lord Ganesha idol supported by Sri Satyanarayana and Narsama of Friends Colony, Old Bowenpally apart from lot of donations collected by Smt Narasama during construction of Temple. The Silver idol of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba was donated by Sri Sitepally Shivaji retired Dy. General Manager of Indian Airlines, Hyderabad residing at Gaganvihar, Begumpet, Hyderabad. Just before consecration ceremony Rs.145000/- was collected through the good offices of Sri N.V.P. Sharma of Yousufguda and Rs. 20000/- through Ms Pollisetty Somasundaram of Guntur through the contacts Sri R.S. Nishtala of M/s Skyway travels, Guntur. During this time, we also 100 bags of Cement for Civil construction through Sri S. Yougandhar Regional Manager of New India Assurance Company Ltd, Hyderabad.\

Many donated in cash and kind for the idols and construction of the temple. Detailed list of all such devotees with their contributions are attached.

Transporting Idols from Jaipur

The idol of Shirdi Sai Baba and all the other idols weighing more than 600 kgs were brought by air- courtesy M/s Indian Airlines ltd Hyderabad/ Delhi. Special permission was sought from CMD of Indian Airlines Sri PC.Sen The officials who coordinated in the transportation of the idol were Sri R.Thyagarajan Sri T.R.Ramchandran Sri H.Jaya Raman, and finally coordinated at Hyderabad by N.Venkat These idols landed at Hyderabad on the midnight of 16th/17th February 1996 on Thursday and were brought to temple in the early hours of Thursday.

Special Yagashala was made in the land of Sri Indubenjariwala opposite the Temple and consecration ceremony was done for a period of 5 days culminating in the “Pranaprathistha” of the all the idols by following all the religious procedures and adivasas as per the vedic principles and shastras under the able guidance of pujya guru Sri Kappagantula Maruti Satya Aditya garu along with his team of rithviks which included his learned father Sri Kappaganthula Koteshwar Rao garu, his brothers Sri Dathathreya Sarma garu, Sri Harerama Sarma garu and finally Sri Srinivas Sarma garu . The ceremony was a grand success with more then 10000 people participating in the Annadanam and related programmes.

Following the Path of Shirdi

From then on the Temple is being run on the lines of Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Shirdi with daily four Arathis viz Kakada, Madhyana, Sandya and Sej sung in Marathi.

As the activities of the Samajam was increasing day by day the place was not sufficient for conducting various programmes and Annadanam and hence it was decided to expand by acquiring additional land or buildings for this purpose. The efforts for procuring the building to the north of the Temple was not successful and thereafter about 340 Sq. yards of land on the west side of the Temple was secured with initial money of Rs. 1lakh given by Sri Nishtala Prasad on returnable basis.

At the same time, we requested devotees to donate Rs. 3000/- per Sq. yard on one time basis, and those who could not afford payment at one time were given the option of contributing Rs. 100/- per month and again this amount correctively given for Rs. 5 lakh chit and the same was bid at a convenient time and paid for the land which we brought for the temple and once again Sri M. Rangaiah Goud got the plot registered in the name of the Samajam, while contributing for the cost of registration.

Construction of the Temple

Now having the acquired the land we once again approached Sri Pinnapati Sambamurthy, Architect for a plan and estimate for two floors. On the ground floor we planned for Hall, Kitchen, Office room and Lumbar room for keeping the wood for Dhuni. On the first floor we planned for a Yoga Hall/ Annadanam Hall. After the Shankustapana we once again started collections for construction. Sri Surya Teja, Apprising Officer, Air Customs was contacted by Sri N. Venkat. He was instrumental in arranging for total steel required for both ground and first floors steel and along with Sri R. Mallikarjun we approached M/s Tulisiyan Ltd, Ambattor, Chennai who was grateful enough he was about 6 tones of steel. Here again we approached Sri R. Ramachandran of M/s Sikkas, Custom Clearance and forwarding agents of M/s Indian Airlines, Hyderabad through whose help we were able to transport the entire steel through Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Old Bowenpally.

The entire temple and Satsang Hall and Sai Koti Stupam were totally built under the expert guidance Sri Pinnapati Sambamurthy of HAL Colony, Old Bowenpally and the Masonry work was done by Sri Prakash from Prakasham District, who was very humble and accepted payments in installments and even wrote off some payments due to him. He was ably assisted by Sri Anandh who was his deputy. The plumbing work was done by Sri Jagganmohan Reddy and the electrical work by Sri Venkateshwarlu.

The rough granite flooring was funded by Sri Venkateshwar Rao of Akasnagar through his son in law Sri S. Gopal Krishna of Indian Airlines, Hyderabad. The marble around the temple and the black Bathamcharla Stone in the Dhuni was donated by Sri B. Shivanandam of Indian Airlines, Hyderabad.

The entire granite flooring and wall cladding who was donated by Sri Gouthamchand Jain M.D., of M/s Pokarna granites through good offices of Sri N. Venkat of Indian Airlines, Hyderabad. Most of the bricks for Annadanam building were donated by Sri Venkateshwarlu of LIC of Hyderabad to the kind courtesy of Sri R. Mallikarjun of HAL Colony, Hyderabad. The idols adorning the Annadanam Hall namely the black stone idol of Sri Hanuman was donated by Sri V. Natraj and the Shirdi Sai Baba idol Sri Govindh Reddy and Srinivas Reddy of Mallikarjuna Nagar Colony, Old Bowenpally, Hyderabad. It may not be out of place to mention that Sri V. Natraj is the neighbor of Shirdi Sai Baba Temple and is always ready for help. He is also instrumental in providing the inverters for the Temple and ensures that Baba is never and darkness.

Sai Koti Stupam and Annadanam Building

The Sai Koti Stupam which is constructed in between the temple and the Annadanam Hall now contains about more than 8 crores of Sai Namam written by young and old Sai Devotees with books provided free of cost by the temple and as such promoting the Sai cult in each and every home in Bowenpally and the Hyderabad city at large. This helps elderly devotees who can not visit the temple regularly to donate the Sai Namam written by them and these in turn and consecrated on festival days by Sri K.M. Satya Aditya garu at regular intervals.

Now the Annadanam building is converted and managed by Sri Siva Shakthi Charitable Trust. In the year 2007 it was decided to build quarters the Temple priests and we have since allotted two single bedroom apartments to both the preists on the second floor, and presently residing them since February 2008.

Start of Clinic and Subsidized Diagnostic Services

Sri Sai Siva Shakthi Charitable Trust has also acquired 24 x 12 of Commercial space in the form of a shutter donated by Sri Late Samala Veera Reddy, and we have since started a free clinic and Charitable Diagnostic charitable trust in the name of Sri Sai Aswini Poly clinic and Diagnostic center with the help of local Doctors and have inaugurated it on 26th of January 2010.

Final Word

The final word of Special praise must be the given to Sri Yannamandra Srinivasulu and Smt Yannamandra Janaki for their continuous supervision and guidance in the entire project of construction and maintenance thereafter.