Puttaparthi (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: ''Puṭṭaparthy'') is a municipality and district headquarters of Sri Sathya Sai district of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. It is located in Puttaparthi

mandal A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative c ...

of Puttaparthi revenue division. The original name of Puttaparthi was Gollapalli. The town is located on the banks of Chitravathi River which is a tributary of Penna River, and is surrounded by undulating hills. It is widely known for the birthplace and deathplace of the Indian spiritual leader and guru Sathya Sai Baba and his ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam.

Etymology

Puttaparthi means "village of anthills." A local legend says that a

cobra COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

snake cursed the village after being hit by a cowherder, which caused the proliferation of anthills in this area.

Demographics

Residing in the state of

, the official language in Puttaparthi is Telugu. Other common languages spoken in Puttaparthi are Tamil,

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and English. Various national and international languages are understood and spoken due to the presence of national and international devotees of Sathya Sai Baba. According to the 2011

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

census, Puttaparthi has a "total of 4368 residing families. The Puttaparthi village has population of 15088, of which 7370 are males, while 7718 are females... Puttaparthi village has higher

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

compared to

. In 2011, the literacy rate of Puttaparthi village was 70.43 % compared to 67.02 % of Andhra Pradesh. In Puttaparthi, male literacy stands at 78.12 % while female literacy rate was 63.20 %."

Geography

Climate

The climate is generally hot and dry throughout the year, summer temperatures ranging from and winter . The hotter months are from March until July and the milder months are from November until January. The southwest monsoons play a major role in determining the climate. The northeast monsoons are responsible for about one-third of the total rainfall. Some rainfall may be expected during the months of July and August and again from October to December." Puttaparthi is 475 meters (1558 feet) above sea level.

Transport

Road

The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) operates bus services from Puttaparthi bus station. People visit Puttaparthi from all over India, and most State transport services also supply buses to Puttaparthi. Puttaparthi is well connected by road to

Anantapur Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru Tehsil, mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city ...

(84 km),

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

(154 km),

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

(507 km), Tirupati (227 km),

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

(529 km) and all parts of Anantapur district. Buses at APSRTC Bus station puttaparthi

Rail

Puttaparthi has a railway station named as Sri Sathya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam. The Railway station was inaugurated and became functional on November 23, 2000; Sathya Sai Baba's 74th birthday. It is about 8.6 km to the west of the ashram and 4 km south of the neighboring village of Kothacheruvu. This station falls under the Bangalore Division of the

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

and lies on the Bangalore–Guntakal railway line. Travel time between the Rail station and Puttaparthi is approximately 15-25 minutes through various modes of transportation; cabs,

autorickshaw An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many other terms in various countries, including three-wheeler, Adaidaita Sahu, Keke-napep, Maruwa, auto, ...

s and APSRTC buses. The town is connected directly by train to

Secunderabad Secunderabad () is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It is the headquarters of the South ...

, Vishakapatnam,

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, Bhuvaneshwar and

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. and Sri Sathya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam railway station is the 5th busiest station in Bangalore division of SWR.

Air

Puttaparthi Airport (IATA: PUT, ICAO: VOPN) is a

domestic airport A domestic airport is an airport that handles only flights within the same country. Domestic airports do not have customs and immigration facilities and so cannot handle flights to or from a foreign airport. These airports often have short r ...

situated outside the village, 1 km from the Sathya Sai Baba Super Specialty Hospital. "It is a small airport with facilities for chartered flights rather than commercial aircraft. The airport was inaugurated on November 24, 1990 to serve the Super Speciality Hospital for emergency situations. The airstrip was constructed by L&T ECC. It was later extended to enable the operation of jet aircraft." It is owned by the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and is spread over of land, housing a runway that is 2,230 metres long. The nearest International airport is the

Kempegowda International Airport Kempegowda International Airport is an international airport serving Bengaluru, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Spread over , it is located about north of the city near the suburb of Devanahalli. It is owned and operated by ...

at Devanahalli, a suburb of Bangalore which is about 119 km from Puttaparthi.

Sports

Sri Sathya Sai International Centre for Sports and Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium are two sporting facilities in Puttaparthi. Hill View Stadium was established in 1985 and is mainly used for cricket with a capacity of 50,000 people. The International Centre for Sports was established in 2006 with indoor facilities for Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, Squash, Table Tennis, Badminton, Gymnastics and Yoga/Aerobics.

References

External links

Cities and towns in Sri Sathya Sai district {{Sathya Sai Baba Sathya Sai Baba District headquarters of Andhra Pradesh