The Camphor applied on the Lord’s chin at Tirumala and the crowbar at the entrance:

Fresh edible camphor (pachakarpura) powder is applied to the Lord’s chin every day during the morning puja. This is the story behind it. Sri Ananthalwan a dis­ciple of Sri Ramanuja, who was deputed to the flower-service to the Lord of Tiruvenkata by Ramanuja wanted to establish a flower garden atop Tirumala and he wanted to do all the related work without sharing it with oth­ers. He started digging the earth for building a tank. His wife who was in an advanced state of pregnancy was re­moving the earth dug out by carrying it in a basket on her head. She was filling a pit some distance, away. The Lord, taking pity on her, came disguised as servant boy took the basket from her head„ threw the earth into the pit and returned the basket to her. Noting that the progress was quite rapid for a pregnant woman, Ananthalwan found out that a third person was sharing the service.

In an angry mood he ran and hit the boy on the chin with his crowbar for stealing his service com­manded by his acharya. When he.went to worship the Lord that evening he found blood was trickling from His chin. In a flash he saw that it was the Lord who had come in disguise to help his wife. He immediately pressed the pollen of a flower (Ezhilaipalai) on the wound and stopped the bleeding. He begged the Lord for forgive­ness. The Lord who is very much attached to His sin­cere devotees, feeling very happy at the zeal of Ananthalwan in ‘His own service, said, “Come! Ananthalwan! The wound caused on my chin by your crowbar will heal up and leave a scar. It will remain there like the mole Srivatsa on my chest as a beautiful land­mark on my face. Do not feel sorry or dejected on this account. Let fresh camphor (pachakarpura) be applied on this scar everyday and the crowbar be displayed at the entrance high enough to be seen by all. Following this incident fresh Pachakkarpura is being pressed on the Lord’s chin everyday. The crowbar has been fixed on the northern wall near the main entrance for all pilgrims to see.