हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Panakala Narasimha Temple, Mangalagiri

One of the eight great Narasimha kshetras of Andhra, where the open mouth of Narasimha on the hill drinks exactly half of whatever jaggery water is poured in, and gives back the rest as prasad.

Built: Hill shrine of great age; lower Lakshmi Narasimha temple with an 11-storeyed gopuram built 1807–09 by Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri NaiduWhere: Andhra Pradesh (Guntur district)Deity: Bhagwan Narasimha, who takes panakam16.43° N, 80.57° E
  1. 1515
  2. 1807–1809
Photo: Bhaskaranaidu · CC BY-SA 3.0

01The god who drinks

Halfway up the hill there is no full murti, only a wide open mouth of Narasimha in brass on the rock face. Devotees bring panakam, jaggery dissolved in water with cardamom, and the priest pours it in from a conch. A gurgling sound comes from within, as if someone were drinking; when it stops, half the offering flows back out and is given as prasad. Whether a small pot or a large one is offered, the share is always half, devotees say, and though so much sugar is poured every day, no ant gathers on the hill.

02The tall gopuram below

At the foot of the hill stands the Lakshmi Narasimha temple. Its east gopuram, eleven storeys and about 153 feet high, was built between 1807 and 1809 by Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu of Amaravati, a zamindar who built and restored many temples on the Krishna. Its height and narrowness make it one of the most striking towers in the south. An inscription of Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara on the hill records his campaign that took the fort of Kondavidu in 1515.

The life of this place

  1. 1515Krishnadevaraya’s inscription records the capture of Kondavidu.
  2. 1807–1809Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu builds the eleven-storeyed gopuram.
Visiting

Mangalagiri lies between Vijayawada and Guntur, about 12 km from Vijayawada. The hill shrine is open only by day.

Nearby

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The Gupta Age

Undavalli Caves

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