Temples of Andhra Pradesh - Srisailam Temple

About Srisailam Temple, Temples of Andhra Pradesh

The Srisailam temple is situated on the border of the ancient sacred hill of Srigiri on the south bank of the Krishna River, in the Nallamalai range of Andhra Pradesh at 232 km south of Hyderabad. The Srisailam is also known as Sriparvata has the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva which is considered as one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva. The existing temple complex dates back to 2nd century AD and Shiva here is worshipped as Mallikarjunaswamy with his wife Bhramaramba Devi. It is also one of the eighteen most sacred goddess shrines, or Shakti Pithas.

It is believed that when Vrishabha, the sacred bull of Lord Shiva performed penance here, Lord Shiva appeared before him, with his consort Parvati in the forms of Mallikarjuna and Bharamaramba. The images of these deities which are extremely old are enshrined in the more recent temple built by the Vijayanagar king Harihara Raya around 1404 AD. This temple is bounded by a great fort like wall that is 20 ft high, 6 ft wide and 2120 ft in circumference. This wall was built in 1520 AD and has 3200 stones, each weighing over one ton. These stones are decorated with fine relief carvings displaying images from Hindu mythology.

The temple abounds in sculptural beauty and has about 116 inscriptions in and around it. The great Chalukyas rulers, the Vijayanagar rulers, and the Maratha rulers are associated historically with this temple. Sri Adi Shankara is also believed to have worshipped the deity of this temple. Even the references of the temple can be found even in the works of the Buddhist pilgrims, Fahiyan and Hieun t`sang.

The most appealing significance of this temple is that anyone of any cast and creed can touch the deity and worship. There is a cluster of minor shrines within the temple enclosure which include the Sahasra Linga, Panchapandava temples and Vata Vriksha. The Sikhareswara Swamy temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is situated at Sikharam, the highest of the Srisailam hills. There is a beautiful temple is Sri Ganapathi temple, dedicated to Lord Ganesh.

The river Krishna is known as Pathalaganga in this place is referred as a very sacred river for pilgrims. The Maha Shivaratri festival is the most important celebration at Srisailam temple. There is also a festival of Goddess Bhramaramba which comes a month or two after Shivarathri. The region also has the 512m long Srisailam Dam and the Paladhara and the Panchadhara waterfalls apart from the Srisailam wildlife sanctuary.

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An Introduction to Hinduism

Known as “Santana Dharma” in Sanskrit, the Hinduism is the world's oldest organized and most profound religion. It is the everlasting religion which was founded, exists and flourishes in India. It is not founded by a single leader and does ...

The Vedas

The earliest literary creations were the Rig-Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda. The Vedas had the Mantras or the hymns, the Brahmanas or the ritual and the ceremonies, the Aranyakas or the forest speculations and ...

The Upanishads

The Upanisads being diverse in character and outlook recognize the intuition rather than reason as a path to ultimate truth. Even though there are supposed to be 108 or more Upanishads, twelve of them are recognized as the principal units. ...

The Epics of India

In the period of the Epics which succeeded the period of the Upanisads, the Ramayana and the Mahabharat, philosophical doctrines were presented in the form of stories and parables. The Avatars or the incarnations of Vishnu, assume a prominent place ...

The Bhagavad-Gita

The Bhagavad-Gita contains the essence of Indian teaching about the duties of life as well as spiritual obligations. It emphasizes on the importance of knowledge, charity, penance and worship. It is referred as the song of the divine one, the ...

The Dharma Sastras

The Dharma Sastras contain treatises on ethical and social philosophy compiled to deal systematically with the proper conduct of life and describe social, ethical and religious obligations. The Sruti and the Smriti are the two authoritative sources of Hinduism. Sruti ...

The Puranas

The Puranas being expressed in the form of parables and narratives have become the scripture for the common people. They are encyclopedias furnishing an image of spiritual, religious, social, political and cultural life comprising an astonishingly varied repertory of folklore ...

Influence of Buddhism and Jainism

Buddhism is a religion with a complex history and system of beliefs. Its four noble truths comprise the essence of Buddha's teachings. They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end ...

Influence of Vaishnavism

Vaishnavism sometimes referred as the heart of Hinduism is the largest community within the Hinduism worshipping the God Lord Vishnu. There are many divisions focusing on one form or avatar of Vishnu. The twelve Alvars laid the foundations for the ...

Various influences on Hinduism

Influence of Sri Adi Shankaracharya on HinduismThe influence of Sri Adi Shankaracharya on Hinduism is remarkable. During his short but active life, he traveled all over the country, refuting atheistic and materialistic systems of thought, writing commentaries on the Upanisads, ...

On Hindu Gods and Goddesses

The Hindus believe in the Supreme Being and think that he is the god of all religions. The cosmic activity of the Supreme Being has three important tasks such as the creation, the preservation and the dissolution and the recreation. ...

Hindu God - Lord Ganesha

Lord Ganesha is a unique Hindu deity in the human form with the head of an elephant. He is believed to be the power of the Supreme Being which removes the obstacles and ensures success in human endeavors. So every ...

Hindu God - Lord Brahma

Lord Brahma symbolizes the creation aspect of the Supreme Reality. Being the first member of the Hindu Trinity, he is called as the creator of the Universe. His divine consort is Saraswati who is the Goddess of learning and knowledge. ...

Hindu God - Lord Vishnu

Lord Vishnu is the God of preservation in the Universe preserving and sustaining the Universe. The four arms of the lord signify his omnipresence and omnipotence. The two front arms indicate the lord's activity in the physical world and ...

Hindu God - Lord Shiva

Lord Shiva is the God of recreation in the cyclic process of creation, preservation, dissolution and recreation of the universe. He is also referred as the destructor. His cosmic role is to balance between the opposing forces of good and ...

Hindu God - Goddess Durga

Goddess Durga maintains the moral order and the righteousness in the creation. In Sanskrit, the word Durga means a fort or a place that is protected and thus difficult to reach. Goddess Durga is also called as the Divine Mother, ...

Hindu God - Goddess Lakshmi

Goddess Lakshmi is symbolism of wealth and prosperity. In Sanskrit, the word ''Lakshmi'' means "goal." She represents the goal of life including worldly and spiritual prosperity. She is also called as Shri, who is the divine spouse of Lord Vishnu. ...

Hindu God - Goddess Saraswati

Goddess Saraswati is the deity of learning, knowledge, and wisdom. In Sanskrit, the word Saraswati means "the essence of the self." Goddess Saraswati is the divine wife of Lord Brahma. She is the creative power of Brahma. She is worshipped ...

More Hindu Gods

Hindu God - Lord RamaLord Rama being the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu, worshipping him is very popular among all Hindus. In temples Rama is accompanied by his faithful wife, Sita, devoted brother Lakshmana and beloved devotee Hanuman. The great ...

Influence of Navagraha on your life

Navagraha or the nine planets influence the life of every person. It can either give harmony or misery to the individual as per its movements. There are Shanthis and Parikaras specific to each planet to get rid of the evil ...

Hindu Philosophy

The Hindu philosophy is the longest surviving philosophy with several historical stages. The various schools of philosophy had different approaches to reality but they considered the Vedas as the authoritative and believed in the permanent individual self, Atman. Most of ...

The Samkhya School of Philosophy

The Samkhya is the oldest of the orthodox philosophical systems in Hinduism postulating that the universe consists of two eternal realities such as the Purusha or the soul and the Prakriti or the matter or nature. Being the silent spectators ...

The Yoga School of Philosophy

The Yoga which is considered to have arisen from the Samkhya philosophy has its primary text as the Bhagavad Gita. It explores the four primary systems of the Karma-Yoga, the Buddhi-Yoga, the Dhyana-Yoga and the Bhakti-Yoga. Being many million years ...

The Nyaya School of Philosophy

The Nyaya School of philosophy is based on texts called the Nyaya Sutras. They were written by Aksapada Gautama. The most important contribution of this school is its methodology based on a system of logic that has been adopted by ...

The Vaisheshika School of Philosophy

Founded by the sage Kanada, the Vaisheshika School of philosophy postulates an atomic pluralism. Accordingly all objects in the physical universe are reducible to a certain number of atoms, and the God is regarded as the fundamental force causing the ...

The Purva Mimamsa School of Philosophy

The Purva Mimamsa School established the authority of the Vedas through the formulation of the rules of Vedic interpretation. Its believers assumed that one must have unquestionable faith in the Vedas and perform the fire-sacrifices or yajnas regularly. Accordingly, it ...

The Vedanta School of Philosophy

The Vedanta School of Philosophy was also known as the Uttara Mimamsa school, concentrated on the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads rather than on the ritualistic injunctions of the Brahmanas.With the traditional Vedic karma kanda being continued to be practiced ...

Hinduism as a Religion

Hinduism is a religion with various gods and goddesses. It differs from other organized religions in many aspects. It is neither based on a particular founder nor on a book and is not controlled by a central institution or authority. ...

Worship at Temple

Even though the god is omnipresent, there should be a way to worship him and get his grace. The temples are built for the same purpose to focus the power of the lord in a consecrated idol. They are the ...

Temple Architecture of India

The Hindu temples developed over two thousand years depict excellent architectural evolution which took place within the boundaries of strict models derived from religious considerations. In Hindu tradition, the Temple architecture is a religious architecture which is connected to astronomy ...

Temple Arts of India

Mural PaintingsMural Paintings are the most common temple paintings and its evolution in temples can be traced from Ajanta to Kerala. Linked intrinsically with Indian painting traditions, the Murals are the earliest evidences unearthed from the remnants of ancient civilization. ...

Forms of Hindu worship

The process of worship in Hinduism involves the use of three basic techniques such as the mantra, the tantra and the yantra. The mantra symbolizes the path of knowledge, the tantra symbolizes the path of devotion and the yantra symbolizes ...

About Hindu Prayers

The Hindu Prayer is the part and parcel of the Vedic lifestyle. The vedas have the large collection of mantras and prayer rituals extolling a single supreme force, Brahman. The prayer of Brahman is focused on the personal forms of ...

Darshan in Hinduism

In Sanskrit, the word “Darshan” means the sight, or the vision, or the apparition, or the glimpse. It is used for the vision of the divine mainly of a god or a very holy person or artifact. Darshan is the ...

Pooja in Hinduism

The Pooja is another form of worship to the deities of the Hindu Religion which involves prayers, offerings and sacrifices. The Hindu devotees perform the Pooja in a fixed, ritualistic pattern. It is believed to establish a bridge between the ...

Pradakshina in Hinduism

The parikrama or the pradakshina or the circumambulation means circling the sacred object. It has deeper meaning in the religious space connecting the devotee to the cosmos. It is performed by circumambulating around a sacred person, sacred image, a sacred ...

Prasad in Hinduism

The word ‘prasad’ implies to give peace. It is the sacred offering of the god. During any form of worship, Hindus offer certain items to god. Based on the ability of the devotee, many types of items are offered like

Basic norms to be followed in a temple

The house of worship for Hindus is the temple. It is in this place the divine relationship with the god can be easily accomplished. It is the place reserved for religious and spiritual activities. There are many elaborate measures taken ...

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Temples of Andhra Pradesh - Srisailam Temple

The Srisailam temple is situated on the border of the ancient sacred hill of Srigiri on the south bank of the Krishna River, in the Nallamalai range of Andhra Pradesh at 232 km south of Hyderabad. The Srisailam is also

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The Sri Kalahasti temple is an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and is one of the Pancha Bhoota Stalams. The Pancha Bhoota Stalam is related to the temples celebrating Shiva as the embodiment of the primary elements. The air ...

Temples of Andhra Pradesh - Amareswara Swamy Temple

The Amareswara Swamy temple is located on a small hillock referred to as Krouncha Shaila in Amaravati, about 15 miles away from Guntur near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. This temple constitutes one of the five Pancharama temples of Andhra Pradesh ...

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Major Temples of Gujarat

Major Temples of Gujarat > Sri Somanath TempleSri Somnath temple is known as the Eternal Shrine as it has withstood the shocks of time and the attacks of the destroyers. Situated in Prabhas Kshetra in Saurashtra at 79 kms from ...

Major Temples of Jammu and Kashmir

Temples of Jammu and Kashmir - Amarnath Temple The Amarnath temple is one of the most revered pilgrimage places in India. The cave is located at 86 miles north east of Srinagar at 13000 feet above sea level. Surrounded ...

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Temples of Karnataka - Vishnumurthy Temple

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