Amararama, Amareswara Temple, Amaravati

01The five pieces of one linga

The sthala purana of the Pancharamas tells of the asura Tarakasura, who wore a linga at his throat and could not be slain while it stayed whole. In the war of the Devas, Kumara, the son of Shiva, broke it with his shakti, and the pieces fell at five places in the Andhra country. Each was set up and worshipped by a deity: Indra at Amaravati, Surya at Draksharama, Chandra at Bhimavaram, Vishnu at Palakollu and Kumara himself at Samalkot. Pilgrims of the Godavari and Krishna delta still try to see all five within a single day in Kartika.

02Amaravati on the Krishna

Amaravati was Dhanyakataka, the Satavahana city whose great stupa stood a short walk from this temple. The temple walls carry some thirty-five inscriptions, the earliest of 1129 CE, recording gifts of lamps, land and cattle by Chalukya, Kota and Kakatiya donors. The tall white linga rises through the sanctum, and devotees climb to an upper floor to offer worship at its head. In the 1790s the zamindar Vasireddy Venkatadri Nayudu moved his seat to Amaravati and renewed the temple; the town grew around it.

The life of this place