We had planned a two day pilgrimage to both these places and chose to start on the second Saturday in the month of September. (14th and 15th September 2013). Mrs.and Mr.Seshagiri Rao had willingly joined us. We chose to go by road, in the Hyundai Verna car. Our driver Mr.Ramu had been ready one hour before our scheduled departure.
As you are aware, Srisailam is in the Nallamala Mountain range, which spreads through the central Andhra Pradesh and ends at Tirumala. Both Srisailam and Tirumala are in the Range. Srisailam at one end of the mountain range and Tirumala on the other end.
From Hyderabad we have to travel to south to reach Srisailam in a distance of about 225 Kms. We got on the State Highway-5. The is excellent four lane road for over 60 kms. Thereafter, condition of the road is good, but it is a one lane road.
On the way we had our breakfast at Tukkuguda (about 35 Kms from our home). This is a different hotel. There are two big tached pandals. No benches, no tables but for few plastic chairs. Visitors should stand and finish their breakfast process. They prepare only three items...(1) Idli, (2) Vada and (3) Dosa. Visitors have to buy coupons and stand in a que to pick up our eatables. Chutney and Sambar are kept in BIG vessels and the visitors have to take the required chutney and sambar by themselves. There were big number of visitors when we went there. The hotel is said to be running there for over twenty five years. Their business model was interesting. Surely they are making big money. That hotel can serve more than two hundred guests. Our next halt was only at Uma Maheswaram. About Srisailam, we are aware of. So, let me add a brief information about “Uma Maheswaram”.
Srisailam has four gateways (Pravesa Dwaram) one on each direction. “Tripurantakam” (In Palanadu area, in Guntur District) on the east, Siddhavatam (Near Cuddapah) on the south, Alampuram (Mahboob Nagar disrrict, near Kurnool) on the west and then Uma Maheswaram on the north side. Those days, when pilgrims were going on foot to visit Srisailam, used to pass through one of these gateways.
Uma Maheswaram is at an altitude of 500 ft from groud level. From Umamaheswara pilgrims used to climb the hill and when they get down, they will reach the Krishna River. Then they had to cross the river and climb the hill to reach the temple. At the foot of the Umamaheswaram hill, there is a temple Tank (Koneru). I guess it was an assured source of drinking water for the pilgrims passing through this place, on their way to Srisailam.
Here is a picture of the tank.
This picture shows how the forest and hill looks.
This temple at Uma Maheswaram is as ancient as Srisailam, and it is believed that “Sri Rama” had visited this temple and worshipped this Siva Linga. The known history of this temple dates back to 11th Century. You may observe on the rear side of the Linga, it is not a wall, but it is the mountain itself. Also the Siva Linga is in the shape of a brick (and not round). Construction of temple was done only on the other sides.
It is a very beautiful place. This being the month of September after a good monsoon, there is greenery all around and it is a spell bounding natural beauty in any direction we can look.
There were about a hundred or little over a hundred pilgrims. So, we had the good fortune of taking part in performing “Rudrabhishekam” by sitting beside the Siva Lingam, in the Sanctum Sanctorum.
This is the entrance of the temple.
There is a perennial water source called “Papa Nasam” at about half a kilometre from the temple, where water comes out underneath the huge rocks at the same rate all through the year. There is a rock-pot there that gets filled with water for every five minutes and overflows to water jasmine and other plants below. It is said that there will not be any change in the quantity of water filling irrespective of the season. We could not visit it, but now I regret it and may be I will have visit Umamaheswaram again.
Here is a an extract of google map picture of Maheswaram. There is a ghat road which is being widely used. There is also a steps way beginning at the temple tank. This steps way is centuries old, and still being used by a good number of pilgrims.
After performing Abhishekam, we got into our car driving towards Srisailam, which is about 80 kms. After about 20 Kms from Uma Maheswaram, the plane road ends and it is the start of the ghat road. The ghat road is not steep, and an easy drive.
In the good olden days, devotees from the north side of Srisailam, travelling to Srisailam used to touch Umamaheswaram, them climb the hill. When they get down the hill, they will reach Krishna River. They used to cross the river through “Putti” (a picture shown below). It is said that guiding a Putti requires lot of skills than guiding a boat. Even today, we can see hundreds of “Puttis” in the Krishna River while we travel to Srisailam.
Appended is a google map showing the route from Umamaheswaram to Srisailam, by climbing the Nallamala Forest Ghats. Now may be the locals using this route, but all others travel by road. Here you can observe that the Krishna River is taking almost a full circle to the Srisailam Hill. This small piece of Krishna River is addressed as “Patala Ganga”, and considered very very sacred. Most pilgrims who reach Srisailam by bus, will get down the hill through traditional steps to Patal Ganga, take bath, carry water from Patala Ganga and perform Abhishekam to Siva. About fve years back, a rope way is constructed to reach Patala Ganga. Charges are Rs.50 per head for bothway ride.
While we drive, we reach a place called “Manumodu. From here the real deep forest starts, and also it is a reserved forest (Abhayaranya) where we have to register ourselves with the vehicle number. After 9 pm, no vehicles allowed towards Srisailam. However, we reached and crossed that point at about 1.00 pm.
We reached Srisailam at about 2.45 pm, and first thing was for lunch. We found the AP Tourism Corporation’s Hotel which was decent.
What we did next will be diarized in a separate mail.
No comments:
Post a Comment