GUTTIKONDA BILAM, PIDUGURALLA MANDAL, GUNTUR DT, A.P.

On 31 Aug 2011, Ranjan day,  I visited Guttikonda Bilam.  First I reached Guttikonda boarding Macharla bus from Narasaraopet.    It took 1 hr.  Then, there are share autos (Rs.10/- per head) from Guttikonda village bus stop to guttikonda bilam.  It is not a tar raod.  In between over the Krishana canal the bridge is very narrow.  Auto fellow hardly managed. It is doubtful even a small car like Maruthi 800  can pass over  that bridge.

After the bridge it is just 1 km. Aboard Bilam ku dari is shown in Telugu.  Some temple structures are recently built on the way to Bilam.  One has to climb nearly 1 km to reach the spot.  Entrance to the caves is beautiful.  Inside the caves there is plenty of space where 100 people can sit and pray.  Ganesha statue Shiva lingam are there.  Lights have been provided by the Tourist department.

SILA SASANAM 1182AD

ENTRANCE TO CAVES

sivalingam staue of sankara
in a temple outside cave

 closer view of cave inentrance

view inside the cave
huge worship place 

view of stair case
photo taken from inside cave

small lady is nayakuralu nagamma sila
100 meters away from the raod
Caves are 500 meters away
behind nayakuralu nagamma sila
Tall pillar in the background is
 Communist party flag host

Other temples near the road leading
to the caves

GAMALAPADU ANICIENT SIVALAYAM OF 11TH CENTURY (in ruins)

ANICIENT SIVALAYAM
11TH CENTURY

In History in 1182AD  Palanati yuddam was fought between Bramhanaidu and Nayakuralu Nagamma the ministers serving the respective Kings.  Nayakuralu Nagamma was a native of Gamalapadu village which is just 2kms before  present day  Dachepalli.

Letter of TTD dt 1-6-2006

Nayakuralu Nagamma has built a Sivalayam during the period and it has been awfully neglected partly because it was built by infamous Nagamma.  There is no reason for the diety and the temple to be ignored and left to get ruined for 800 years just like that.  Archeology department of Government of India  has the responsibility to restore and rennovate such ancient temples. 

Search internet revealed did show a document from TTD (Thirmala Thirupati Devastanam Chairman) dt 1-6-2006 that  

Resolved to renovate the following ancient temples with the Financial Assistance of TTD

ANOTHER VIEW

Seeing the present status of the temple in the potographs it is obvious that TTD did not really implement their own decision to renovate the ancient temple at Gamalapadu. 

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WAADAPALLI GREAT SHIVA TEMPLE , BUS FROM MIRYALAGUDA-25KMS

                                                     

Musi river left side and Krishna river
Horizontayon the far side sangamam
see the right angled and area at the
joining of the two rivers meeting  

     Saturday 20-8-2011  At 8:30AM started from home and by 9AM reached Sagar ringroad and got  into a bus to Mall and then to Mallepalli.  From Mallepalli I could get a bus to Miryalaguda and it took 1Hr 30 Min. At 1PM I took lunch at Mirayaguda APSRTC canteen and then, at 2PM got the Dachepalli bus.  College students are also there.  The bus is crowded but I coud get a seat.  The bus reached Vadapally at 2:40PM. Then, walked 1 km to reach the Temples.  First there are remains of a Fort and unattended temple of Veerabhadraswamy in ruins (I have seen Veerbhadraswamy tempe ruins on my way back at 5PM).    

Musi river with  fast moving floating flora 

Krishna river  main flow and
left side Musi river with floating flora   

The bridge seen at magnified image
on the far right where the buses fly.
Rail bridge is also adjacent to that
but not clear from this photo

The temple of Lakshmi Narasimha swamy is seen first.  Then, at a distance I could also see the temple of Meenakshi Agasteswaqra swamy shivalayam.  The temple will reopen for darshan at 4PM. So, I went round the temple for 1 hour. taking some pictures of the Sangamam of Musi river with Krishna river.  I could clearly see the bridge over the Krishna river and the busses that are going towards Dachepalli.    Goddess Krishnaveni statue is facing the Krishna main stram and cimbed from the river to the statue and took a picture of the godess Krishnaveni.  Then, entering though stair case inside the temple complex, I took a picture of the Nagendra swamy putta. By the time 

Krishanveni Thalli statue

Kakatiya period 11th century
silasasanas

Nagendraswamy in front of main temple

By the time, it was 4PM and the Archaka Pujari came and I had Darshan after Pradakshim of the temple. I prayed to the God to bless my dauther and son-in-law to have job at same place and for the immediate recovery of my grand daughter from fever.  The Archaka Pujari has performed the Mantrapushpam on the names of my family incuding Rohini's family.  The water from the Shiva Lingam has been showeverd by the Priest on each one of the devotees and Pujari has explained that the water or Ganga is always present on this Shiva lingam as there is a cut at the top of shiva lingam. Sivalingam here is reasonably large size of 2 feet dia and is covered with silver nagabharana.  Devotees has the faciltiy to perform Abhishekam in the mroning hours (Rs.51/- is charged by the temple management for the Puja).

To perform the Puja on Monday 22-8-2011 auspecious day in this month of Sravan (at the suggestion of Pujari)  I have given the details on a piece of paper (RushiPhala gotram) of my daughter's family to perform the Abhishekam and puja  and Rs.100/- Dakshina.

Sri Lakshmi Narasimha swamy temple
 Vijayanagara period 16th century
Srikrishna Devaraya period

    Next I purchased book on sthalapurana in the nearby shop (the only shop in the premises arranged by Endowments department shed).

Silasasanaas at Sri Lakshminarasimaha
swamy temple 

Runis of Veerabhadra swamy temple
at the entrance of the fort

It was 4:30 PM then I went to Sri Laxminarasimhaswamy temple.  The temple was inside was dark but, there are two Deepas one above and other below it as seen in the photograph. The upper Depa was shivering, while the lowe Depp has a steady light. The Archaka pujari reached by then, and opened the door performed Mantrapuspam and given us the theertha prasad. Pujari expalined ot the devotees the significance of the two Deepams.  (I took this photo graph as the pujari was not present at the time, Pujari told me not totake pictures as he entered the temple).

Sila sasanas of the temple orgins is available and I could take photos  of the same sinced it is not inside the garbhagriha.  

After another 5 minutes walk I saw the ruins of the fort built by Kakatiyas.  Adjacent to the fort at the left side of the entrance are the ruins of  Veerabhadraswamy temple.

The Mula virat Meenakshi Agasteswara
swamy Lingam with Ganga over Head
About 2 feet dia the head of shiva lingam
 has a cut and the Ganga jalam is drizzeled
by the Pujari over the heads of devotees.

<iframe src="http://wikimapia.org/#lat=16.6930099&lon=79.6707487&z=15&l=0&ifr=1&m=b" width="250" height="250" frameborder="0"></iframe>

 THERE IS ALWAYS WATER ONTOP OF THIS SHIVALINGAM. EVEN IF IT IS REMOVED WATER COMES AUTOMATICALLY AND FILLS THE HEAD.  

WADAPALLY IS 25KMS FROM MIRYALAGUDA AT THE SAMGAM OF MUSI - KRISHAN RIVERS.  VERY NEAR TO RASI CEMENT FACTORY AND VISHNUPURAL RAILWAY STATION.   THE ABOVE URL IN WIKIMAPIA IS GIVING VERY USEFUL INFORMATION.  tHIS PICTURE OF SHIVA LINGAM IS TAKEN FROM THE ABOVE URL.  PRAYING GOD FOR AN EARLY DARSHAN.  

 In the Piduguralla to Miryalaguda and Hyderabad Highway one has to getdown at Vazirabad immediatey after the Krishna river.  

there are 3 temples  just within 1 or 2 km distance.  

Distance wise : 

First we see Veerabhadra swamy temple

Second Laxmi Narasimha swamy temple

then Near to the samgam we see Meenakshi Agasteswara swamy temple.  

For More information see wikipedia article at the link  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadapally

and for the map see wikimapia link

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=16.6937909&lon=79.6686888&z=15&l=0&m=b

VERLAGUDI, KAREMPUDI, PALNATI YUDDA BHOOMI

main temple is on the right side

samadis of muslim brothers
of Aurangajeb period  who have
choosen to go Jeevasamadhi
 in the premises of the Veerla Gudi

shot from the bridge on Naguleru
 ie adjacent to bus stand

part of the temple 

Archaeological department display

On Aug 14, 2011 Sunday early in the morning I reached Kotcherla by 4am.  Ramesh came from Upparapalem and picked me up. Performed Pooja in the morning hours by 10am in the temple of Ankamma Devatha by Grandparents of Akshaya.  There was no plan in the afternoon so, took rest at home.  Nextday, Mon Aug 15, 2011 early in the morning by 8am I am back in Kotcherla and took bus to Karempudi.  Reached the bus stand by 9am.  Ahead of the bus stand is the bridge over the Naguleru.  The source of water for Naguleru is the Pedda kaluva of the Nagarjuna sagar.  The adjacent picture with lories in the down and the Veerla temple at distance is taken from the bridge. It is just 300 meters from the bridge.  Interesting ly, Archeological department has been entrusted the job of renovating the site and Rs.one crore has been sanctioned an year ago.  Some huts have been removed to cear the area that was originally the area  where the fight took place.  One gentleman, B. Vijaya Kumar, is at the site and he introduced himself as the Palnati Veerachara Peetadhipathi Ayyagaru and told me some thing about the history  and the 5 day Thirunala programme that is performed every year starting from Karthka Masam Amavasya day.  This year it falls on Fri Nov.25, 2011  upto Tue 29 Nov 2011.

       Then, as I gathered more information, I went by walk to (the back side of Karempudi bus stand) the temple of VEERLA ANKALAMMA, the Godess whom the fighters and Bramhanaidu foster son (Mala by cast) has  worshipped at the time of Palnati Yuddam.   The temple Pujari (one of the Pujaris) is also living adjacent to the temple and a book 'PALNATI VERRULA CHARITRA' is available from his shop. It has a few color pictures of the Veerla gudi as well as the Chenna Kesava Temple and Veera Ankalamma temple of Karempudi as we as the shiva temple built by Nayakuralu Nagamma.   The book is having very good information about the life and times of Palnati bramhanaidu.        

AYODHYA VISIT

street view that we should go by walk
.
.
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The  centre canopy is the
Hanuman garhi temple

Hanuman garhi distant view

This Tuesday on 9th Aug 2011 I had the rare opportunity to go to Ayodhya, the historical and the birth place of SriRama my favourite God since my childhood days.

Interior view of Kanakamahal

This is the Hanuman statue that
the car sevaks got from the
Babri site during digging

The road journey from Kanpur Lucknow is very tiresome as the road was under repaid for various new flyovers under construction.  Starting at 8:30am reached Lucknow at 1030 am and got into Faiabad bus at 11am.  This route has better road however, my body was already paining, I reached by 2:30 PM.  From Faizabad bus stand I took Vikram auto then in 30 minutes I am at Ayodhya.  There is a long walk to the temple site. I saw Hanuman Garhi temple.


Then my attention was diverted by one of the usual Pandit who took me to one Mandir headed by a very fat Pandit of Samajwadi Party.  The red coloured hanuman statue lying flat on the right side is shown.  The car sevaks got it during the digging at the Babri masjid site.  Then,  Pandit took me to Kanak mahal, which show the ornaments given to Sita devi, the new bride by her mother-in-laws at arrival in Ayodhya. ie. before the Vanavas.  Then, the time was running out so, I requested him to take me to the much talked about Ram Janmabhoomi.  Pandit reluctantly showed me the way to the site and I have given him dakshin even before showing me the way to the heavily guarded Rama janmabhoomi site.
     After depositing my belt, cellphone etc at the locker room (unorganised-no que) I rushed to the guarded area.  Finally into the place.  All my interest to see the place of worship and my dreams shattered at the site that I saw. No temple nothing of that sort. Simply passed through some curtains of iron rods and finally had darshan of Rama lala. I prayed to the Lord and offered the 51/- from my sons side and 21/- of my friends side into the offering box the reason for my coming into the Ramlala darshan.  I prayed again for the marriages of my sons.  It just flashed at once Lord Rama didnot even know that he had two sons till they met in a fight in the forest near  Valmiki Ashram (Bittoor / Bramhavart near Kanpur).   This thought reduced my internal sadness and Bhagawan Sri Rama has directed me to follow the footsteps of SriRama and it again reinforced my faith in Bhagwan SriRama.  I donot know what I saw in Ayodhya isn't upto my expectations but, my faith in Ramayana and Bhagwan Sri Rama has been re-inforced 10 fold.  Such is the power of Bhagawan Sri Rama and the devine characteristics imprinted in my thoughts.