The holy bath (Tirumanjana) to Sri Mulamurthy:

Reforms Introduced by Sri Ramanuja

While Sri Ramanuna was sojourning at Tirupati, he gave serious thought to the daily abhisheka being per­formed to the Mulamurthi at Tirumala. He felt that daily abhisheka was not good from the point of view of of­fering various upacharas (steps in the daily puj a wor­ship) in full according to the agamas. These do not go well with the daily abhisheka. Instead Tirumanjana (abhisheka) performed in a grand manner periodically would be better. The Ananda samhita of Vaikhanasa agama states that if Tirumanjana is performed to Vishnu (in idol form) along with Sri on Friday, it increases His presence in the idol, and further more, it results in increase in wealth and prosperity. In the story of the brahmin by name Kurman in the fourth chapter of the Bhavishyothara Purana, the narration runs thus: “0 Brahmin! Yesterday was Friday, the bath-day of the Lord of Tiruvenkata. My daughters went to Tirumala to witness the bath and wor­ship the Lord. Your wife has also gone up the Tiruvenkata hill with them along with her children.” These are words of king Tondaman addressing the brahmin Kurman. It is clear that in olden days the abhisheka was being performed regularly on Fridays. So Ramanuja decided that the Lord should be bathed with Lakshmi in all splendour only on Fridays and not daily.