This is a Hill temple and a cluster of 3 temples . Sri Vyagara Narasimha Swamy temple at the foot of the hill .
Sri Shobanachala Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at the Hill and Sri Achanteswara Swamy (Lord Shiva) temple at even more top of it .
Sri Vyagara Lakshmi Narasimhar Swamy is in Agripalli. It is 25kms from Vijayawada. This temple is dedicated to Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. Here Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy is also known Sri Vyagra Narasimha Swamy. Vyagra means tiger in telugu here instead of lion the Lord Narasimhar has a tiger’s face . This is the foot hill temple with 25 steps .
Sri Shobanachala Narasimha Swamy
This temple is on a hillock one has to climb about 750 steps to have the dharshan of the Lord .The main deity is Sri Shobanachala Lakshmi Narasimhar with his consort Goddess Rajalakshmi is an swayambu . Here the Lord is with a smiling face . Opposite to the main sanctum is Dwajasthambam in front of it Lord Hanuman temple and a mantap adjacent to the main sanctum. Only 10 people can enter inside the temple at a time .
As per legend Sri Mahavishnu and Sri Mahadeva were visiting the earth. It was evening time, when they were near this place. They were looking for a place to stay over for the night. They saw this place among the mountains and thick green forest. They were impressed with the scenic beauty and the tranquility of the place. They decided to spend the night in the scenic and peaceful environment. Sri Mahavishnu wanted to perform evening sandhya vandanam and requested Sri Mahadeva to find a suitable place for their stay. Sri Mahadeva, after searching for a while, found a nice place on the top of the mountain and settled down there, forgetting to inform Sri Maha Vishnu. Sri Maha Vishnu waited for some time for Sri Maha Deva to return, but finding that Sri Maha Deva did not come back, he went in search of him. When he found that Sri Maha Deva settled down comfortably on the top of the mountain, Sri Maha Vishnu felt some what angry and thumped the head of Sri Maha Deva with his fist and cursed that no body will visit him without having the Darshan of self (Sri Maha Visnu). Saying this, Sri Maha Vishnu came down in two steps and settled down at the foot of the Mountain. Even now, one can notice the impression of the fingers on the top of the sacred Siva Lingam and the two large stone slabs (representing the imprint of the foot steps of the Lord). Lord Sri Maha Vishnu is known in this place as Sri Shobhanachala Swamy (Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy) with Mother Sri Rajya Lakshmi. Lord Sri Maha Vishnu is considered here as Shobana or happy or shanta Murty (after pacification by Bhakta Prahlada).
One has to climb 100 more steps to have the dharshan of Lord Shiva named Achanteswara Swamy .
Sri Rameswaraswamy temple is positioned in Achanta, West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. Achanta also referred to as as Marthandapuram inside the past. The Shivalinga present in this temple is said to be Swayambhu (self-fashioned). Here Lord Shiva is referred to as as Achanteswara Swamy. This temple is having beautiful structure. There are sub-temples of Lord Vighneswara Goddess Saraswathi and Saptamatrukalu inside the predominant temple . From the inscriptions on the wall’s of this temple, it’s far recognised that this temple changed into built at some point of the duration of Eastern Chalukyas . The Raja Gopura of this temple is maximum one in this area, which ripples the construction fashion of Chalukyas . There is 6 Shiva linga’s in the temple, which are Lakshmaneswara lingam, Someswara lingam, Markandeya lingam, Bhimalingam, Skandalingam, and Indralingam.
The Pancha Narasimhar sthethram are Mangalagiri Vedadri Matapalli Vadapalli and Kethavaram in Vijaywada.
Since the roads were blocked due to some reasons our tour organizer took us to this temple .
Hope will get a chance to have the dharshan of Lord Narasimhar in Kethavaram.
Ranjus travel blog 