Day4-Vizag

 Day 4:

Places Covered: Surya Narayanar Temple, Srikurmam, Sri Mukhalingam



Mode Of Transport: Hotel Cab

Cost: Rs.4100/-

Duration : 9 Am To 8 :30 Pm

Lunch @ Hotel Nagavalli (30 minutes from Srikurmam Temple)

We covered three great temples in the Srikakulam district. Srikakulam district is at a distance Of around 120 km from Vizag. We finished our breakfast and started by 9 Am from the Hotel Dolphin. It took us almost 3 hrs to reach the district. First in our day was to visit Surya Narayana temple(Sun God Temple)

Surya Narayana Temple(Sun God Temple):

The temple closes by 12:30 PM . We managed to reach the temple before 12 noon.

The temple is located in Arasavalli village in Srikakulam district. It is one of the ancient Sun God Temples which is believed to be built in the 7th Century AD.




TheTemple Exit




Temple timing:

 6 Am to 12:30 Pm, 

3:30 Pm to 8 Pm

 It happened to be a Sunday and it was overcrowded. The entrance had the statue of Sun God riding eight horses. To avoid getting late to the next temple, we took a 100 rs ticket to join the quick darshan.  The Main deity gave us his wonderful blessing.

Quick darshan queue was very quick and we were out in just few minutes.

Srikurmam:

Next in our line was Kurmanadha Swamy Temple. This temple is also located in Srikurmam village at a 25 minutes drive from Arasavalli Temple. We were near the temple around 12:45 Pm . The Temple was very nice and we were happy to visit the only temple for the Koorma avatar. 


The Arch On The Way To The Temple

The Entrance

The Suyambu Kurma Avatar- Main Deity

It is a big Temple and the crowd in this temple was normal when we visited. The Main deity is a suyambu and it appeared like a tortoise. The deity was covered with Sandalwood paste. People were made to stand in queues and were allowed to view the deity closely. It was very different from the other God and Goddess we have seen in other temples.

The Architecture of the building was good and there were many paintings on the wall. It looked like the paintings were very old.
Inside The Temple








Speciality 2: Apart from the main deity, another specialty is that, this is the only temple where the deity faces the west. There are two dwaja sthambas (east and west) in this temple. There is also a story behind it.

The story goes like, the great Ramanuja was once praying from the west and the lord(Koormam) himself turned west to bless him and permanently remained in this direction. As the deity was facing the west, another dwajasthambam was raised on this side.

Specialty 3: There is a tunnel to Varanasi which was built in olden days. But, this tunnel is closed due to the entry of Wild animals


Tunnel To Varanasi


Speciality 4: Pushkarni is worth mentioning here. The Swetha Pushkarani is believed to be formed from Vishnu's Chakra and people say that the goddess of this temple emerged from the pond.

Way To Pushkarni




The Pushkarni

 A View From Outside 

As there was no crowd, we prayed peacefully in this temple. We spent 45 minutes to 1 hour there and moved towards in search of some restaurant to fill our tummy. We researched that there was no much good restaurant near SriMukhalingam so we planned to have our food before we reach our next temple.

We had our food at Hotel Nagavalli. It was a good restaurant at a drive of 30 minutes from srikurmam temple.

Srimukhalingam:

The temple is in a small village called Mukhalingam, One and a half hours from Srikurmam. People over there say that there are around thousands of lingams in and around this village, but not sure how far this is true.

We searched over net and found out the temple will be closed only between 1 and 2. So we made sure we were not there during that time. We reached the temple around 4:00 Pm.

There are three ancient temples in this village at a distance of a few yards between each other considered to be built during the 8th or 9th centuries.

The first one is Sri Madhukeshwara Temple and this is considered to be the oldest among the three. The main deity here is the lingam. The main thing that makes it different and special from the shiva lingam found in other temples is the face carvings.

The Main Temple, Sri Madhukeshwara Temple


The Architecture Of the temple was so good

The Temples Architecture was like Orissa Temples


Apart from that, the beautiful architecture on the walls also makes these temples special. As the place lies near the Orissa border, the temple architecture was similar to Orissa's temples.  

There is a huge vessel placed behind the deity of Madhukeshwara to provide one's offerings.

The other two temples Someshwara and Bhimeswara temple are very near to the main temple. But, These are not properly maintained and the kids of the village use the temple as a place to play cricket.

The Bhimeshwara Temple



The Someshwara Temple

The priests of these temples are dependent only on the money they get by serving the temple. As they don't get enough money, they literally demand money from visitors. Though we felt a bit annoyed about the continuous pestering of the priests demanding money, it's pity that they don't get enough money for their daily life.


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