Temples of East Godavari District, Andhra pradesh

During this vacation, we were blessed to cover few famous temples of Andhra Pradesh about which I’m going to give a brief description.

In East Godavari District, we visited the following temples this time:

Bikkavolu:

 Swayambhu vinayaka temple and swayambhu Subrahmanyeswara temple

               The idol of Lord Ganesha in the temple is believed to grow in size. People generally go to the idol and whisper their wish in swami’s ear so that the wish will be fulfilled.

 The other temple in Bikkavolu is of Sri Subrahmanyeswara swami located in the Golingeswara Shiva temple. The swami here is Kumara Subrahmanya swami. We can see the anthill here where the Lord comes every day in the form of a snake to aceept the milk prasada offered. Even the size of the anthill remains the same, though the puttamannu is taken to be offered as prasadam.

Gollalamamidada: This place is located at 4 KM from Bikkavolu. This village hosts temples of Lord Rama and Surya Narayana murthy.

The Ramalayam is a beautiful temple where one can go to the top of the gopuram on steps. The Addala mantapam in this temple is a must see spot.

The Surya Narayana temple is one of its kind since swami here is worshipped as Vishnu swaroopa. Suryanarayana swami is worshipped in Aasavalli of Srikakulam district as siva swaroopa and and as brahma swaroopa in Konark temple, as Sun God is believed to be Trimurthy swarupa.

Pithapuram:

       This place is now-a-days attracting many pilgrims from maharastra, as its importance is mentioned in Sri Guru Charitra. People flock here to get the darshan of Sripada Srivallabha Janma sthana at the Sansthan located in Venugopala swami temple street. Go pooja is performed here everyday at 8 am.

Swayambhu Dattatreya swami is present in the famous Kukkuteswara swami temple which also hosts one of the Asta Dasa Shakthi peethas namely Puruhutika Amman. This is also known as Pada gaya, sacred for offering of pinda pradana to pitru devatha. This is believed to be equally powerful as offering in Gaya.

Kunti Madhava swami temple is one of the Pancha(5) Madhava temples belonging to Vaishnava tradition. The other 4 being, Bindu Madhava in Kasi, venu Madhava in Prayaga, Sundara Madhava in Kerala and Setu Madhava in Rameswaram.

Sthala puranam: Veda Vyas Maharshi has been to pitapuram, to visit the Kukuteswara Swamy Temple, later he came to Madhava Temple. He has seen on his Divya Drushti to find the history of this temple. He told that, this temple was established and built by "Lord Indra" and it was worshipped by Sri Rama in Treta Yuga (In the time of Vanavas) and Kunthi, Pandavas in Dwapara Yuga. Mainly Kunthi Maha Devi has performed lot of poojas in this temple. From then onwards this Madhava Temple is known as Kunthi Madhava Kshetra. From that day onwards the temple has recognized as Kunthi Madhava Swamy Temple.

Peddapuram : This place is famous for the temple of Goddess Maridamma. People visit this temple in larger crowd especially during the month of Aashadha. The very huge idol of the goddess is really stunning. Sri Chaganti Koteswara rao garu mentions about this Goddess many times in His discourses.

Samalkot:  Hosting one of the Pancharama Shiva temples, Samalkot is a very powerful place nearby Kakinada. It is called Kumararamam, hosting Kumara Bhimeswara Swami and Goddess Bala Tripurasundari. According to legend, the sivalinga at the temple place was installed and established by Lord Kumara Swami.

    The temple is 1 kilometer from Samarlakota City. The limestone Linga, installed in the shrine, is 16 feet tall that it rises from the pedestal on the ground floor and enters the second floor by piercing the roof, where the Rudrabhaga is worshipped. The temple has a mandapam that is supported by 100 pillars and is of great architectural importance. The temple has an Ekasila Nandi (A Bull carved from a single stone) guarding the Shiva Lingam at the entrance of the temple. The temple resembles the other Pancharama temple at Draksharama which is also called Bhimeswara Alayam. During Tarakasura vadha, the Shiva Linga which was in the throat of Tarakasura broke into five pieces and one of the pieces fell here. Thereafter, it came to be known as Kumararama. Lord Bhimeswara Swamy was installed by Kumara Swamy (son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati) and hence the temple is called KumaraRama. This temple was built in Dravidian style, by the King Chalukya Bhima. Hence the name is Bhimeswara.

Chollangi: This village has a famous Anjaneya temple and nearby to that, there is Someswara temple. The Shiva linga in this temple is installed by moon thus deriving its name Someswara. In the Hanuman temple, the pujari stays in adjacent house, so one can visit that at any time.

Ryali: the temple of Jaganmohini Kesava Swami and Uma Kamandaleswara Swami are very famous in this place. These two temples are located exactly opposite to each other.

Sthala puranam: Ryali" in telugu means falling. According to the legend "Bhagavatam" the Devatas and Rakshas were quarrelling over sharing of holy Devine nectar.Seeing this, "Sri Maha Vishnu" came to the rescue of Devatas in the guise of Mohini (a beautiful woman) and convinced both the rivalry groups promising to distribute holy Devine nectar in equal share to Devatas and Rakshas. But in the interest of universal peace the Devine nectar was distributed among Devatas alone and after which Mohini disappeared. Lord Siva happened to see the fascinating beauty of Mohini. He chased her for getting for a while in the presence of his consort Parvathi Devi. As he was chasing her, flower from the plait of Mohini fell down and was smelt by Lord Siva. He surprisingly found "Sree Maha Vishnu" in the form of Mohini and felt shy for his behavior. The place where the flower from the plait of Mohini fell was named as RYALI. 

                                       

                                               

      

   The Ryali temple is known as Lord JaganMohini Keshava Swamy temple. The temple’s art and architecture are very unique. But the most unique feature of this temple is the idol of the presiding deity which 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide and has been beautifully and gracefully carved out of a single black saligrama stone which portrays Keshava Swamy, on the front and the back side of the stone portrays JaganMohini, a lovely and attractive woman. This idol has been carved skillfully to evoke respect and adoration in the minds of the devotees. Lord Maha Vishnu who is shown here in the form of Keshava Swamy has four hands. He is shown holding "Shankha" (conch) and "Chakra" (disc) in two hands while the other two hands hold "Gadha" and "Manthara" mountain. Opposite this temple, is the temple of Lord Shiva in the form of Sri Umakamandaleswaraswami. Lord Brahma created a Lingam & performed abhishekam with water from his kamandalam & henceforth Lord Siva is being worshipped here as Sri Umakamandaleswaraswami. Along with Sri Maha Vishnu with his conch & discuss are carved the forms Sridevi, Boodevi, Saint Narada and his thumbura, Ramba, Oorvasi, Kinnara, Kimpurusha, Govardhana Krishna, Adi Shesha (the serpant), Garuda & Ganga devi. Water keeps sprouting from the underground at the idol's feet. This water wets the the flowers at the Lord's feet & the water from these flowers is sprinkled on devotees. There is also a separate shrine for Sri Sathya Narayana Swamy along with Sri Lakshmi Devi.

Vadapalli: The temple of Lord Venkateswara swami here is very famous. People visit this temple continuously for 7 Saturdays to fulfil their wishes, thus giving the Lord the name “Edu varala venknna”. Every year Sri Swamy Vari Thirtham holds an annual ceremony. Bhramostavam is performed on a grand scale. The Bhramostavam is celebrated for 10 days.