Sri Kalahasti

Another weekend and plans were set on Friday night alright!!!  My cousin and I were going to Sri Kalahasti temple in Chitoor district of Andhra Pradesh.  We started from home at 6 in the morning and reached Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) by 6 45.  Sri Kalahasti is located enroute Tirupati on the Chennai-Tada-Sri Kalahasti-Tirupati route.  So we could take buses that ply directly to Sri Kalahasti or buses that go to Tirupati on the NH45 route.

We got an SETC Ultra Deluxe that started to Tirupati at 7.  After buying the tickets which costed around Rs 100 per person, we settled down for a nap.  The bus travels on NH45 till Tada in Andhra Pradesh crossing Redhills and Gummudipoondi on the way.  NH45 is a part of the Golden Quadrilateral which connects Chennai to Kolkata.  The highway, as expected, provided for a smooth ride.  

From Tada, the bus takes a left, riding on the Sri Kalahasti Road.  Sri Kalahasti is located 46kms away from Tada.  The road was pretty good, however with quite a few speed breakers.

The Sri Kalahasteeswara temple is one of the most important ancient Shiva temples of South India.  The temple popularly called Dakshina Kailasam has three lofty gopurams which are remarkable for their architecture.

This temple was originally built during the Pallava period and current structures were built by Chola King Kulothunga Cholan I, II and III during the 11th Century.

The temple is one of the Panchabhoota sthalam - representing the five basic elements.  This is the Vayu sthalam representing air. The others are at Tiruvannamalai, Kanchipuram, Tiruvanaikaval and Chidambaram.

 
Many Tamil Saivite saints like Sambandar, Appar, Manikkavasagar, Sundaramurti have also visited this place.  The temple is situated on the banks of Swarnamukhi river and picturesque surrounding of hillocks.  The temple is maintained by the Andhra Pradesh government.

The temple can be entered through one of the three gopurams.  We moved into the premises through the Bala Gnanambika gopuram.  Before going in, we had to deposit our mobile phones and camera at the counter outside the temple. 

Once inside the temple, we followed the crowd to join the free darshan queue.  The queue started from outside the inner gopuram of the temple and moved through the temple premises before entering the room where the moolavar sat.  The queue took around an hour to take us near Lord Kalahasteeswara. 

On the path, we saw various types of Siva Lingams, statues of saints and other Gods & Goddesses.  The temple had sculptures filling the panels on columns.  Some sculptures were typical of Chola architecture. 

 






Lord Kalahasteeswara was in the form of a lingam and represented Vayu.  After offering our prayers to Lord Siva, we followed the queue to reach the Thayar sannadhi.  Thayar was called Gnana Prasunambika Devi and the room that housed her, also had a cradle with Lord Siva and Thayar together on it.  We offered our prayers here as well and moved to collect prasadam. 

We learnt that the outer walls and the gopurams were constructed in the period of Sri Veera Narasimharayar in 12th century.  The sculptures all around the temple were really admirable.  The temple is also reputed as a Rahu Kethu Kshetra.  We spent some time reading information about the temple displayed on boards around the temple.

After exiting the temple, we looked at exhibits in the shops nearby without the slightest intention of purchasing them.  We then had lunch at a roadside mess and proceeded towards the bus stand. 

We took the Chennai bound bus starting from Sri Kalahasti and reached CMBT by 4 30 in the evening.  At around 6, we reached home, distributed the prasadam to all and described our spiritual experience.