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. 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 devotion

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.

“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.

Healing the weary

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.