Sri Yaganti Uma Maheswara Temple or Yaganti:

Is a temple to Lord Shiva in Kurnool District in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The temple is in the Banaganapalle mandal, 14 km west of Banagapalle village. This temple was constructed by King Harihara Bukka Raya of the Sangama Dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 15th century.

History behind this marvel:

One of the story is as follows: Chitteppa, a devotee of Lord Shiva, was worshiping Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva appeared to him as a tiger. Chitteppa understood that it was Lord Shiva in tiger form, and shouted Neganti Shivanu ne kanti (meaning: The story according to the priests is that when the sage Agastya completed his uttara desha yatra and started dakshina desha yatra he found the beautiful and pleasant place called yaganti( Nekanti-i have seen)and thought to build a temple for Lord Venkateswara on this site. while roaming around caves one of the caves was found to have a very old statue of Lord Vishnu. After all the yagna, homa and pooja he found that the statue really contains a small defect as broken nail on the foot thumb finger. To seek an explanation he prayed to Shiva and Shiva explained that at this place which contains natural springs and nature only I can be worshipped. Then the sage Agastya asked a boon to Shiva to reside in this place for eternity with Mother Parvathi. So this place is called as Umamahesware (Uma: parvathi, Maheswara: shiva) temple. The shrine contains the statue of Shiva and Parvathi on a single stone.ning: I saw Shiva I saw), and danced with joy.

Interesting beliefs:

1. Growing Nandi:

The devotees believe that the Nandi idol in front of the temple is continuously increasing its size. The locals say that the idol was initially much smaller than its present size. They say that certain experimentation was carried out on this idol and it was said that the type of rock out of which the idol is carved has a growing or enlarging nature associated with it. According to Potuluri Veera Brahmendra swamy, the Basavanna (stone nandi) of Yaganti will come alive and shout when Kali Yuga ends.

2. Absence of crows:

Legend has it that while the Sage Agastya was performing his penance, crows disturbed him and he cursed that the crows cannot enter the place. As the crow is the Vahana for Lord Shani, it is believed that Lord Shani cannot enter this place.

Ahobilam:

Ahobilam is a holy site in the Allagadda mandal of Kurnool district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located 70 km from Nandyal and 150 km from Kurnool, the district headquarters. There are two temple houses, lower Ahobilam and upper Ahobilam. According to legend, this is where Lord Narasimha blessed Prahlada and killed the demon Hiranyakashipu.

According to legends it is believed that when the Devas saw the manifestation of Lord Vishnu as half-lion, half-man, they shouted “Ahobala” (great strength) as well as “Ahobila” (great cave in which the current sanctum is). Hence, this place could be called either “Ahobalam” or “Ahobilam”. The mention of this place is present in Brahmanda Purana. The place where Lord Narayana appeared from the stone pillar to kill Hiranyakashipa can be seen in this place. The name of this pillar is Ugra Sthambha, which is now referred as “Ukku SThambha” in Telugu, which incorrectly translates to iron pillar.

Aprameya Temple:

While returning from Hassan, we saw this beautiful temple in Channapatna which was about 60kms from Bangalore. The presiding deity of the temple is Sri Aprameya Swamy. However it is more popular as the Navneeta Krishna temple. It is believed that Sri Rama had stayed here for many years and worshipped the Lord here and hence Sri Aprameya swamy is also called Sri Ramapreya swamy.

The splendour of the temple takes your breath away. There is a written document in Tamil that is preserved till date which says the temple was built and expanded by the Chola King Rajendra Simha in the 4th century.Happy weekend my dear friends..