Some Temples of Krishna District

                                                     
                This time we were able to grab the god’s grace in Krishna District by visiting the following temples. Happy to know that many of them are Swayambhu.
   
Muvva : Popularly known as Movva, this place is the birth place of the famous poet Kshetrayya, who wrote many songs on Venugopala Swamy. As Varadayya (Kshetrayya) spent later part of his life in Tamilnadu, his verses are more famous there.

                                   

  
 As the sthala puranam says, the "muvva" of Lord Sri Krishna's anklet fell down here in this place. During the time of Dwapara yuga, on one Karthika poornima day, while Radha and Krishna were dancing in ecstacy, the 'muvva' of Krishna's anklet fell down here in this place. Then Lord ordered sage Narada to search for it but He couldn't locate it. So Narada did severe penance and Lord appeared in a very bright light exactly in the place where it dropped. Narada got the idol of the Lord made by Devendra exactly the way he got Darshan and did Prana pratishtha.
      The actual muvva which dropped down, reborn as Moudgalya, did penance for the Lord. On the day of Magha Poornima, Swami appeared here as Swayambhu Muvva Gopala and before dawn, Devathas finished building the temple for the Lord there. As the Lord descended there due to Moudgalya, He was called Mouvva Gopala, later transformed as Movva Gopala.
                              

This is the actual idol, but as it got damaged, a new idol was installed and the Shakti in this idol was transferred into the new one(Aavahana).

The consort of the Lord here is Goddess Rajya laxmi devi.

Ghantasala: As directed by the pujari in Movva temple, our next stop was at Ghantasala, hosting the temple of  Shiva called as Jaldhiswara Swami and Goddess Balaparvathi Devi. The speciality here is that both the Lord and the Goddess appear on the same platform, Panavattam. This happens nowhere in any temple.

Salient features of the temple:

• It is the only temple in the world to have lords Siva and Parvati on a single peetam.
• According to the temple history, the peetam was placed by Agastya maharshi.
• Nandeeshwara is more beautiful and realistic in this temple.
• This temple darshan has the same pious (punya phalam) effect equivalent to Darshanam of Dwadasa jyotirlingams (12) and Astadasa Shakti Peetams (18) due to the placement of Siva and Parvati on a single peetam.
• The devotees believe that jaladeeshwara abhisheka theertham is a cure for many diseases.

Sikakulam: This place has the temple of Lord Vishnu popularly called as Srikakulandhra Sri Maha Vishnu.
                             

   It is he place where Srikrishna Devaraya dedicated his literary work Amukta malyada to the Lord. There is also one mantapa build here in this memory.

Chilakalapudi: This place is famous for its Swayambhu Panduranga Devasthanam. one can get the full information about the temple @ http://sripandurangatemple.com/aboutUs.html
                                     

Mopidevi: This is a Swayambhu Subrahmanya Kshetra where the Lord Subrahmanya took the form of a Shivalinga to bless the mankind.
    According to a legend, the Lingam is a self manifested (Swayambhu) one. Veerarapu Parvathalu was a potter, who was a great devotee. Pleased with his devotion the Lord once came in his dream and asked him to dig up the anthill to find his Lingam in the village of Mopidevi. Parvathalu told about his dream to the villagers and dug up the anthill at the place indicated in his dream. Surprisingly, they found the Lingam which was placed on the anthill and they began to worship. He prepared the idols of Horse, Nandi, Cock and Garutmanthudu which are very dear to Subramanya Swamy with clay. He also prepared the idols of great Rishis with clay. He prepared the idols and baked them in the Bhatti in such a fashion that they never lost their original forms.
                                  
                                          
       Sri Subrahmanyeswar Swamy Temple Timings: 04.00 am to 12.30 pm and 02.00 pm to 08.30 pm.
  
                              Our next stop was at Chandolu, about which I mentioned in detail in a special post.