Jai Sriman
Narayana !!
Hara Hara
Sankara Jaya Jaya Sankara !!
Sri
Kalahasthi Temple is one of the 'Pancha Bootha Sthalangal ' of Lord Shiva, which
represents 'Wind'. This temple is situated in a village known as SriKalahasthi, situated 38 km away from
Tirupati. This is one of the most famous Temples of Lord Shiva considered as
'Dakshin Kailash' in South India
situated on the eastern banks
of River Swarnamukhi. The vast structural contributions to this temple were
made by the Kings of Chola and Vijayanagara Kingdom. Sri Kalahasthi Sathakam
written by Durjeti Kavi in Telugu describes the myth of the temple and it speaks
about the life of Kannappa Nayanar ardent devotee of Lord Shiva.
In this temple Lord Shiva is worshipped in the form of a self-manifested Linga white in color. This swayambu Linga was remain untouched from the begining, not even by the priests. The shrine of Lord Kalahasthiswara and Gnana Prasunambika situated on the raised platform in the third enclosure. The well known fact is that Lord Shiva is 'Abisheka Priya' ( ceremonial bath), the Abishekam for the Lord is performed in the form of Scented water, Ashes, Honey, Rice, Sandal Paste, Flower, Panchamrutham, Tender coconut water etc.. on the Ustava Murthi. There are sannidhis for Lord Ganesha under the ground, Durgamba temple on the northern part of the hill and Sri Kannapeswsara Temple dedicated to Sage Kannapa Nayanar on the southern part of the hill .
Presiding deity - Thiru Kalahasthiswarar/Thiru Kalathiappar with his consort Goddess Sri Gnana Prasoonambikai/Gnanmbikai/
Sthala vruksham - Vilvam
Mangala Sasanam - Appar, Sundarar, Thiru Gnana Sambandhar
Festivals - Maha Shivaratri, Arudra Darisanam, Thiru Karthikai, Makara Sankranthi
The legend
has that, Umanabha the son of Vishwakarma (Celestial Architect) was an excellent
sculptor. He started creating replica of the creations of Lord Brahma. This
made Lord Brahma agitated and cursed Umanabha to become a Spider. Umanabha
turned out a Spider, realized his mistake pleaded Lord Brahma. In order to
get relieved out of the curse, Lord Brahma advised Umanabha to worship Lord
Shiva at Dakshin Kalish. The spider became an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva and
started to decorate the temple roofs with its beautiful webs. In order to test
the devotion of the spider, Lord Shiva set out fire on the webs from a lamp.
The bewildered spider attacked the lamp and cried out the help of the Lord. The
compassionate Lord Shiva appeared before the spider and offered
'Salvation'.
In
Tretayuga a serpent made delay on its way back from netherlands to adorn Lord
Shiva's neck, thus it came down to earth at His curse. So as to get rid of the
curse, the serpent began worshipping Lord Shiva at Dakshin Kailash with Gem. In
Dwapara Yuga, an elephant also engaged in worshipping Lord here, with the aim of
get rid of the curse. The serpent continued to worship Lord with the Gem. The elephant
remove the Gems and worship Lord with Bilva leaves. This practice continued
for several days. At last they confronted each other and ended up in a big
fight. Finally, the serpent and elephant got killed each other. At the
devotion of the serpent and elephant, Lord Shiva out of mercy granted them
liberation. The name of the temple 'Sri Kalahasthiswara' commemorates the
incidents took place here. 'Sri' stands for 'Spider', 'Kala' stands for 'The
Serpent' and the Hasti stands for ' Elephant' respectively.
This temple remains open from 5.00 AM to 12.00PM in the morning and 4.30 PM to 9.00PM in the evenings.
Jaya Jaya
Sankara Hara Hara Sankara !!
Jai Sriman
Narayana !!
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