As all andhras do, i too have, heard of Simhachalam for long.....That actually the hill is said to be a volcano,..(dont know if geologists have confirmed this)..-----Quite a significant fact,that some of our most revered shrines are said to be on top of volcanoes.... Arunachalam, which is considered to be the agnilingam,...while,Mangalagiri, and simhachalam house Ugra Narasimha Swami----...
Till few years back, Hyma assured me, Simhachalam used to be a beautiful hill,full of varieties of trees---Jack fruit ,and pine apple,common for Vizag, were in abundance---,with a lovely weather, air replete with scents of woody flowers..(sampangi is prominent among them). and natural water springs ..the rocks used to be damp with moisture....It still looks beautiful ,as i could notice...but may be the residents know better...
Usually the moorthi of Varaha Narasimha swami---that is how the Lord is called there...though the pet name, popular among masses is Appanna,--- is covered in layers of chandanam,ie'sandalwoodpaste.....Only once in a year, on the akshaya triteeya day, all the layers except one are peeled off...and devotees can have the Lord"s nijaroopa darsanam...Hyma says that somehow--nobody knows why----the city heats up on that one day...Ofcource it falls in summer but not withstanding fact, on that particular day, there is an inexplicable hotting up.....She did not believe it her self at first....But later, did notice the changes...
According to historians, long back in old times,Simhachalam used to be the the main city, and Visakha was just a nearby fishing village...Today visakha is the city and simhachalam is it"s suburb.....I could believe it...We are seeing some of those changes our selves, happening in front of our eyes....Golkonda was the main city till just a century back....Now Hyderabad is considered the new one and Golkonda is disparagingly called as the old city....In few more years i could visualise the Hy-tech city emerging as a still newer city.....
Wikepedia says that after Thirupathi...Simhachalam temple is the second highest income grosser in Andhrapradesh....That came as a surprise to me...All along i was thinking it might be Sri sailam...Kalahasthy,or Bhadrachalam...May be that is why the temple always tends to figure in the news with something or other...it"s lands are regularly being encroached upon,....some scam about the deity "s ornaments being tampered with... ......
And then there was this dacoity.... I vaguely remember it, since the details of it were all over the state.. ...Few years back (may be thirty..), a group of dacoits broke into the temple and made off with some jewellery and may be some hundi collections too...Somebody called Martin, a man with Stuartpuram connections and supposed to be of naxal leanings, led the robbery....They finished their raid and were hurrying down the hill as Martin, flushed with his success was said to be shouting something like ..".So, where is the God? and why can"t he save his own house?"....(Just like Hiranyakasyap?)....A crude bomb he was carrying accidentally slipped down and in the ensuing blast Martin lost his leg......He survived,...i could remember that, and carried on with his mutilated limbs.....People drew as many conclusions over this as they liked...Some said that it proved the existence of the lord....Some said it was just a co-incidence....Somebody else thought the punishment was not enough....May be the Lord thought that Martins are better looters than some who go under the garb of his devotees....On the flip side,could it be that the lord was forced to spare Martin,since he would have to be accorded salvation if death came in the Lord"s hands.?....
A rummy thing....This, concept called justice...As a child from a family of advocates and judicial officers, i well remember arguments regularly breaking over some of the issues pertaining to it...Babai thought that dad was too much of an acquittal judge and used to fiercely advocate for rigorous penalties....His argument was that if found guilty, serve the criminal with the maximum punishment....Dad, would differentiate with a clause...."Severity where it is needed."..Well...One was being an advocate and the other was being a judge, i should say...
Anyway...Simhachalam seems to one place where the query ..."where is God?...gets answered... since it is said to be the spot where the Lord caught up Prahlada in his arms as the little one got thrown off the cliff, by his notorious father...
There was considerable rush of pilgrims on that 26th, mid-noon, when we alighted there on our way down,from the Arasavilli trip...That very popular song..."simhachalamu..maha punyakshetramu" was playing in the in the air.....A lovely, typical sindhu bhairavi...As a child, i used to be very fond of the song and bellowed it at the top of my voice till requests came in asking me to put a stop to the racket........I was pleased to note that i still remembered the lyrics...
We purchased few special darshan tickets and had the good fortune to have Lord" s darshan for few minutes....
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Camera can never be a substitute for the eye nor is a photo for the real thing....
That was exactly how i felt as we stood on the vantage point...(you"ll be taken in a lift there)...at Kailasagiri, and looked over the above scene.....The marriage party had gone back to Hyderabad, while we elected to spend a day more with Hyma and Bavagaru...
Nearly every movie shot in Vizag these days shows this shot at least once...and every mention of Vizag in visual media carries this mandatory clip....Even just as a snap, it is a beautiful image...But none of them prepared me for the sheer shocking impact, the real breathtaking beauty of it...A heady mix of hillside and sea...is a rare combination....You do not see it often and that alone makes Kailasagiri, a tourist spot of international standards....
Kailasagiri stands at one end of Vizag,...the third hill of a three fold hill range, on the nearest side to the sea......Most of the visakhapatnam city is spread across and in between these hills and ofcource spills over on all sides too...... It used to be just another one of the innumerable hills there till some twenty years ago, when the municipal authorities woke up to it"s potential as a scenic spot and started developing it....Today it has beautiful gardens, a small museum,a garden of some rock sculptures, and a toy train doing rounds of the hill....where from you can catch sight of the beautiful scenes of valleys, hills, sea and a city....
The crown of it all is a giant statue of Siva and Parvathi....She, the daughter of Himalayas,is beautiful and he is looking slightly austere.... .seated on a pedestal and looking over the sea, , it looks as though the original couple are eternally chit-chatting,and relaxing ....and the scenery before them.....lovely bluish bay with mists rising out, is divine...A sight for the gods...
2 comments:
You have written certain facts about the Simhachalam temple dacoity case. I remember this case very well as my grandfather was the Spl. Public Prosecutor for conducting the trial before the Spl. Court. If this message reaches you please do post your mail id. I have been in search of certain documents pertaining to this case and probably you may throw some light wherefrom I can get soe leads. Thanks
hallo sampath,.....whatever i have written was based on mouth to mouth publicity....I certainly do not have any factual leads ...sorry abt that...
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