Devotees at Tirupati give up their hair believing they are settling a debt the god himself is said to still owe, and the temple has turned that offering into a global commodity.
A loan the god is repaying
Temple legend holds that Lord Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu enshrined here, borrowed a large sum from Kubera, the god of wealth, to fund his marriage to Padmavati, and that the loan remains outstanding, to be repaid only at the end of the current cosmic age. Devotees offering money and, distinctively, their own hair at the temple often frame the gesture as symbolically helping to service that debt, alongside more general devotional motivations.
What happens to the hair
Hair collected through the temple's tonsure ritual, in which pilgrims voluntarily shave their heads, is sorted, graded and sold at auction to international buyers, chiefly for use in wigs and hair extensions, generating very substantial revenue that funds temple operations and charitable activities, turning a personal religious offering into one of the temple's largest income sources.
A sweet with legal protection
The temple's blessed laddu prasadam, distributed to pilgrims, has been granted a Geographical Indication tag under Indian law, legally restricting who may produce and sell sweets marketed under that specific name, a rare instance of a religious offering receiving formal intellectual property protection.