Giri Pradakshina: Ten years of oil, for the feet that walk the Simhachalam hill

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Shri Satya Sai Baba devotees boil sesame oil with black pepper, garlic, vetiver roots, camphor and ajwain, a service they have offered for ten years to those walking the 32-km route

Published - July 26, 2026 04:59 pm IST - VISAKHAPATNAM

Volunteers work the herbal oil into the feet of devotees in Visakhapatnam. Those walking the 32-km Giri Pradakshina stop here for a few minutes before going on. File | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

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.

The oil is prepared by boiling a mix of indigenous herbs, roots and oils, weighing up to 75 kg in all, over a slow flame. 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. It will be bottled and rubbed into the feet of devotees walking the 32-km Giri Pradakshina on July 28. pic.twitter.com/f1ZkhweD6Z— The Hindu - Andhra Pradesh (@THAndhra) July 26, 2026

“We have been doing it for the last decade,” said Jagadeswara Rao, one of the volunteers.

Mr. Rao said they prepare a therapeutic sesame oil infused with black pepper, garlic, vetiver roots, crude camphor and ajwain.

“The oil is boiled thoroughly in a 75 kg format, and after it reduces by 50% of the oil, it is bottled,” said Sunkara Murali Mohan, Sevadal coordinator of the Simhachalam Seva Samithi. “We have prepared the oil for this year, and are gearing for the service on July 28,” Mr. Mohan said.

For the tens of thousands who take part in the circumambulation, blisters and muscle fatigue are the common complaint, more so among those who begin in the afternoon and walk through the night. At the stall near the NAD Junction Sivalayam, volunteers massage the medicated oil onto tired limbs and blistered soles, and devotees sit out a few minutes before rejoining the walk.

“It gave me a big relief,” said Revati, a government teacher who took the oil last year.

The volunteers will begin the service on July 28, and will stay at it until the last of the devotees has passed.

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Published - July 26, 2026 04:59 pm IST

Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam

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