laxmi narashima swamy mangalgiri temple

Laxmi Narasimha Swami temple Mangalagiri

Laxmi Narasimha Swami temple Mangalagiri

Mangalagiri means The fortunate Hill. This place is one of the 8 important Mahakshetrams (sacred places) in India. The eight places where Lord Vishnu manifested himself are (1) Sri Rangam (2) Srimushnam (3) Naimisam (4) Pushkaram (5) Salagamadri (6) Thothadri (7) Narayanasramam (8) Venkatadri.

Thotadri is the present Mangalagiri hills . Lakshmi Devi has done tapas on this hill. That’s why it got this name (The auspicious hill). There are three Narasimha Swamy temples in Mangalagiri. One is Panakala Narasimha Swamy on the hill. Another  is Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy at the foot of the temple. Third one is Gandala Narasimha Swamy at the top of the hill.

The temple of Sri Panakala Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy is located on the hill. On the right side of the steps are  provided to reach the temple, there is a stone dedication by Sri Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar and a little further up, the foot prints of Mahaprabhu Chaitanya are  seen. Midway on the steps there is a temple of Lord Panakala Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy there we see only the face of Narasimhaswamy with widely opened  mouth . A dhwajasthambham was installed in front of the temple in 1955. Behind the temple there is the temple of Sri Lakshmi, to the west of which there is a tunnel which is believed to lead to Vundavalli caves on the banks of the Krishna. The stone inscription of the kings of Vijayanagar relate besides to the conquest of Rayalu over Kondapalli etc., that Siddhiraju Thimmarajayya Devara granted a total of 200 kunchams (10 kunchams make one acre) land in 28 villages of which Mangalagiri was one and gift of 40 kunchams by China Thirumalayya to Ramanujakutam.

Mangalgiri is  in existance since the beginning of the universe. In kritayugam, when there were less sinners, Yamadarmaraja asked all the sinners to wash off  their sins in Mangalgiri, by doing penance on the hill. In  thretayugam, people who enjoyed in heaven, refused to come back to this world. They  prayed to lord Indra to help them for attaining heaven again.Tthen lord Indra advised them to spend their time on the Mangalgiri  hill to go back to heaven. Even Lakshmi devi did severe penance on this hill. So on the whole, it is  said that Mangaliri hill is the place for all gods.

Have you  heard about  a place without ants, even when the place is for Jaggery in india? The answer is Mangalgiri  Panakala  Narasimha Swamy Temple. For Narasimha Swamy , Jaggery water is poured into the wide opened mouth of the god.

Mangalgiri means auspicious hill. Here it is supposed that god is self existant. This temple is opened for  morning to afternoon. It is understood that gods perform their pooja to god in the night. In the temple, there is no Idol of god, only we can see  wide opened mouth of nearly 15cms. This mouth is covered with the metal face of Narasimha  Swamy. Here god is offered with sweet Jaggery water. The priest will pour the Jaggery water with a counch  into the wide opened mouth. while  pouring, we can hear the sound , like some one is drinking water. When the sound stops, the celebrant will stop pouring. Even the priest showed us that the counch was not emptied, even when poured into mouth. This means that god is satisfied with the specified Jaggery water.