Just back from a visit to Sri Kalahasti (called Dakshina Kailasam). This 16th century temple is one of the 5 Shiva temples in India dedicated to the pancha bhootas (5 elements of the universe). The element here is Air, and hence the deity is called Vayulingeshwara. (The other 4 temples are Tiruvannamalai - Fire, Tiruvanaikaval - Water, Kanchipuram - Earth, and Chidambaram - Akasha). An interesting fact I saw is that in the Garbhagudi (Sanctum Sanctorum or the main temple room which houses the deity) the diyas sway lightly even when there is no apparent wind entering the sanctorum. This is said to be the breath of the deity. Also, this lingam has never, till date, been touched by anyone!!! The poojas, abhishekas and even putting flowers etc., are all done without actually touching the lingam. That was very interesting indeed. Also had long Diwali celebrations with family. Totally tired and buzzed up from the sheer heat in Andhra, especially Chittoor. Hope I get some sleep....
PS: Take a look at this pic of Srikalahasti Temple...found it online, and the play of lighting is pretty cool methinks... What say? Will put up some of my own pics of the trip soon...
Hey.. thats an awesome insight! I will be covering all the temples in and around tirupati and tirumala in my upcoming posts. Nice pic too :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Mohan.
ReplyDeleteThe pic credit is not mine though.
I am planning on a trip to Tirupati too...
oh cool! in that case, consider taking the pedestrian path the climb up the hill. You will have a great experience for sure :) I have a detailed post on taking that path.
ReplyDeleteWow!! in fact I was planning to do that only... but it has to be weekend for me, and I am not sure how much time it will take... Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteWeekends it would be usually a bit crowded. Nevertheless, darshanam would be pretty easy since you plan to take pedestrian path. It takes anytime between 2 to 5 hrs depending on your physical fitness. It would be ideal to start on a friday night and reach tirupati by 4 in the early morning of a saturday and start uphill by walk around 5.. that would be a good schedule.
ReplyDeleteBy bus it takes about an hr for uphill and 40 mins for downhill. TTD has also introduced a new 'Queue' priced at Rs 300/- per head which lets you get the god's darshan pretty fast (usually within 4 hrs depending on crowd again)
Thanks a lot Mohan... :)
ReplyDelete