01Agastya’s cave
The temple’s katha says Maharshi Agastya wished to build a temple of Venkateswara here, but the murti he carved was found broken at the toe and could not be installed. He did tapas in a cave in the cliff and Shiva told him the place was Kailasa and should be his. So Uma Maheswara is worshipped in a single murti of the two, and the broken Venkateswara rests in the Venkateswara cave above. Steps lead to the caves of Agastya and of Pothuluri Veerabrahmendra Swami, the seer who lived here and wrote the Kalagnanam.
02The growing Nandi
In front of the temple sits a large stone Nandi in the open mandapa. Devotees say it has grown over the centuries, that the priests once walked round it and now cannot, and that a pillar beside it was removed to make room. Pushkarini water from a natural spring flows from a Nandi’s mouth into the tank. The temple was built in the 15th century by the Sangama kings of Vijayanagara, in the hill country of the Rayalaseema.
The life of this place
- 15th centuryThe temple is built under the Sangama kings of Vijayanagara.
- 17th centuryPothuluri Veerabrahmendra Swami lives and writes in the caves here.
About 14 km from Banaganapalle and 100 km from Kurnool. Wear good shoes for the climb to the caves.
