We engaged a taxi and very predictably the driver turned out to be a mine of information....He seemed to think we have engaged him as a guide too and by the time we returned ,we were in a position to rattle off info on where actor Tharun"s cashew nut grove is,...the two best filling up stations of Vizag,...how many bus services actor Sarath babu owns at Amadalavalasa,...the kind of local political equations ,...the place where best cashew nut can be procured,...the climate, crops,and the financial well- being of the ryots of Srikakulam Dt etc etc etc so much so that i wished i had him as my geography teacher back at school....My scores could have been better....
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Actually we thought that Arasavalli would be a more than three and half hour journey and pleasantly surprised to have reached there in just two hours...Wide, in perfect condition,surrounded by greenery, and with sparse traffic, the NH5 was fantastic.... The kind of road long distance drivers dream of....You cross the Nagavali river, and go up to Srikakulam and Arasavilli is just five or six kilometers away from it...Nagavali is sort of a perennial river, our guide told us,,as it never dries up....farmers harvest two crops a year,and coupled with the produce from the nearby forests,most of the people in the district are quite prosperous...nay.. very, very prosperous, though none of them ever look like it,he added caustically...
The famous SuryaNarayana temple...the only one to be dedicated to Sun god (konark is not really a consecrated one, if you remember)...is a medium sized shrine,not really big ..., but nevertheless well maintained....There was"nt too much of a rush....But "wait till sun day",our driver, philosopher and guide said...."bus loads of people would throng the place, pleading for health, eyes and dasa parihaarams."......
The main deity,flanked on each side by his consorts, is an attractive figure,with brilliant eyes and fierce mustachios too....There were specific instructions written prominently on walls, warning the devotees not to close their eyes in his presence and keep looking on....The surya namaavali and aditya hrudayam are also engraved on the walls and i guiltily reminded my self once again that i should start reciting them, at least from now on...
Yearly once sun rays are stated to reach the feet of the lord here for three days and people come in droves to witness this amazing spectacle...One young man of our party, a mechanical engineer from New york,went about the premises for sometime, searching for , a clue to know how the sun rays could enter at all into the temple as it was all boarded up...He gave up at last with a shrug...Ofcource we were not really conversant with the exact angles and directions of the place...
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"Sri koormam is just three kilometers from Arasavilli...and you must visit the place" insisted our driver (sorry i can"t remember his name)..."anyway you have come this far...So, Why not?"....,..."yes...Why not?"....
Sri koormam sounded vaguely familiar...What i mean is, i have heard of it but never knew it was so near to Vizag ....Not on the list of generally popular pilgrim stations, it is nevertheless gets talked of as a very ancient one and does figure as an important place in vaishnava lore.....Actually it is said to be the only shrine dedicated to Lord Mahavishnu in his koormavatharam......Interesting really....There is MATSYA NARAYANA TEMPLE at Nagari in chittor Dt,where the lord is in his matsyavatharam, now Sri koormam,and later the Varaha Narasimha shrine at Simhachalam.....We felt we were going through the entire list of dasavathaarams...and idly wondered where else in the world does one ever find divinity in all living creatures....
Indeed Sri kooramam turned out to be a very ancient temple but made us feel really sad for the sorry state it was in....Stated to be under the patronage of the GAjapathys of Vijayanagaram,it has vast grounds, a large temple complex, mantapams,good sculptural wealth (though i must admit do not know too much about it), even a small hatchery of baby tortoises too ( where urchins run after you pleading for 10 rupees....To feed the tortoises with greens) , but in the end, we found the paint peeling off,the floors are sinking in, the outer grounds are full of weeds and rank growth,the vahanams and palanquins looked lacklustre, and the general atmosphere inside the gloomy, dark temple is of neglect....Wish somebody...T.T.D? or like minded people would come forward to renovate it...
The sanctum was a bit startling....Instead of the usual idol, we saw a giant stone-made tortoise, perched up on a big rocky platform.....The lord----For it was HE---was facing to the backside of the sanctum, resting after the onerous task of bearing the weight of Mandaragiri.. .....Sandalwood paste has been liberally applied all over him, while beautiful stone-studded namam adorned his snout....
But the Priests here more than compensated for the sorry appearance of the temple with pleasing demeanor and made a sincere effort to explain the significance,and rituals of the temple, and spoke in English too..( for the benefit of the convent educated,) they later explained....A darshan of swami here would ward off griha, graha, vaasthu doshas and brings in the blessings of our ancestors, according to them...The priest at Mahalakshmi temple,(Lord"s consort) went even one step further and declared that people suffering from sani dosham invariably came there...."you can all check your charts", he challenged...It has even been tested and proved, he averred,,but personally i was not convinced.....
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It was already ten in the morning by the time we finished visiting both the temples....And the driver took us back to Srikakulam....As we had not breakfasted yet, we asked him to take us to a hygienic place where we cold get some food that would not upset stomachs....By the look of the things, that seemed to be a remote chance, for,Srikakulam, though a district headquarters looked backward,out of date and unusually dusty---widening of roads was in progress, we were told--....,
Perhaps that was why, at the Hotel Nagavali,---the best one ,, our driver assured us----we were rather taken aback, to see what i have never seen even at some of the best hotels of Hyderabad , ....waitresses in miniest of miniskirts....Even our G.E. nephew looked a little dazed....O.K...we thought....So?...Even the hinterlands have caught up with times...wow....Nagavali is a three star hotel, we were told...It did look rather cushy,..until we have placed our order...They made us wait full one hour for a rather usual andhra breakfast,...and charged the earth for few tepid, oil less dosais,(they seem to care more for my health than myself) and unpleasantly cold chutneys....
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