History

The golden temple complex inside the Sripuram spiritual park is situated at the foot of a small range of green hills at Thirumalaikodi (or simply Malaikodi) village, 8 km from Vellore in Tamil Nadu, India. It is 120 km from Tirupati, 145 km from Chennai, 160 km from Puducherry and 200 km from Bengaluru. The Maha Kumbhabhishekam or consecration of the temple and its chief deity, Sri Lakshmi Narayani or Maha Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, was held on 24 August 2007, and devotees from all religions and backgrounds are welcome to visit. This temple is gilded with 1500 kg of pure gold, double the 750 kg gilding of the dome of the Golden Temple at Amritsar.
The salient feature of ‘Sripuram’ is the Lakshmi Narayani temple whose Vimanam and Ardha Mandapam is covered with pure gold, housing the deity Sri Lakshmi Narayani (female consort of Vishnu Narayana). The temple is located on 100 acres of land and has been constructed by the Vellore-based charitable trust, Sri Narayani Peedam, headed by its spiritual leader Sri Sakthi Amma also known as ‘Narayani Amma’.
The temple with its gold (1500 kg) covering, has intricate work done by artisans specialising in temple art using gold. Every single detail was manually created, including converting the gold bars into gold foils and then mounting the foils on copper. Gold foil from 9 layers to 10 layers has been mounted on the etched copper plates. Every single detail in the temple art has significance from the vedas.

Sripuram’s design features a star-shaped path (Sri chakra), positioned in the middle of the lush green landscape, with a length of over 1.8 km. As one walks along this ‘starpath’ to reach the temple in the middle, one can also read various spiritual messages — such as the gift of the human birth itself, and the value of spirituality — along the way.