Mantralayam

Mantralayam- located in the banks of Tungabhadra river, near Kurnool, in Andra Pradesh is Mantralayam. Saint Sri Raghavenda attained his Samadhi here some 300 years ago. A large number of followers and devotees throng this little town through out the year. Ahobilam is located in Karnool district of Andhra Pradesh in the hills of the eastern ghats, about 400 KM northwest of Chennai. The temple consists of nine shrines to Lord Narasimha located around a 5 KM circle. In addition to the nine shrines, there is a temple for Prahaladavarada Varadhan in the foothills of the mountain. SRISAILAM is situated in the thick and inaccessible forests of the Nallamalai hills, in the northeastern portion of the Nandikotkur Taluk of Kurnool District. From Nandyal -Atamkur - Nagaluti.There are two routes to reach Srisailam from Nagaluti. One goes across the hills, and through dense forests by footpath, and the other by road to Dornal, and from Dornal to Srisailam, by the recently opened ghat road. The road from Nagaluti to Pedda Cheruvu is paved with a remarkable series of stone steps, and the forest scenery, and the ravines of the rock are magnificent and hallowed.

Favourite spots:

The place is throged with devotees from all over India, especially from neighbouring states. From mantralayam we went to panchamuki anjaneyar temple in AP - karnataka borders. The place is important for anjaneyar with 5 different faces showing 5 different qualities. We had darshan of sri anjaneya there. The anjaneya was a inscription in the rocky cave. It is swayambu and so it is spiritually powerful. At nandiswarar, the sanctum sanctorum has the small swayambu linga as the idol. it is just a small rock from which water flows continuously. (mysterious) The water flows out in to a pushkarini in the temple and then the excess overflows as a river in to the town and villages for irrigation. There is a big nandhi(Bull) facing the temple. Srisailam is actually a forest station. It was nice, cool and cozy. We have to come down from the mountains to reach the nagarjuna sagar dam through which the krishna river flows. It is hard to find a safe place to take a sacred dip

What's really great:

The darshans were good. The temples are too old, but they have been renovated and maintained pretty well by devotees from all over. Mantralayam, in particular, was very well developed and maintained. Sakshi Ganapathi Temple, Srisaila Mallikarjuna and Bhramarambha temple, Sikhareswaram and Srisailam dam, the Srisailam wildlife sanctuary. The tungabadra river in mantralayam was very slow and calm. There were lots of rocks so we did not find the difficulty of depth. The vada pennaru river in nellore was almost drained. Only a big stretch flowing calmly near the banks. The rocks were slippery. We had darshan of sri ranganatha swamy there. It was a small idol and the temple was also quite small, unlike srirangam. for more info visit website www.hindustantemples.com