Amararama

Amararama is one of the Pancharama Kshetras which is located at Amaravati town near Guntur City in Andhra Pradesh in South India. Lord Shiva is known as Amareswara Swamy or Amaralingeswara Swamy here. The temple is situated on the southern bank of Krishna River. The consort of Lord Amareswara Swamy is Bala Chamundika. The Sivalinga at this place is installed and established by Lord Indra.

Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu, King of Chintapalli and later Dharanikota, was a great devotee of Amaralingeswara. He expanded and renovated the temple. The popular legend has it that once during the course of putting down a rebellion in his land the King had to have recourse to a massacre of the Chenchus, whereupon he lost his mental peace, which he regained only when he came to Amaravati. He shifted his place from Chintapalli to Amaravati in 1796, and devoted his entire life, time and revenues to building temples to Lord Siva. He renovated the Amareswaraswamy temple here, got nine learned archakas to be brought for the daily archana of the Lord, and provided them with all the needs of livelihood, including 12 acres of land to each. The temple as it stands owes much to him.

Amaravati temple has also a wealth of inscriptions on its walls like those of the Kota chiefs of Arnaravati and of Sri Krishandevaraya, the great Vijayanagara emperor. On a pillar in the Mukhamantapa the wife of Proli Nayudu, a Kota king, has left an inscription.

The main festivals in the temple are the Mahashivaratri, which comes in the Magha Bahula Dasami and the Navaratri and the Kalyana Utsavas. Amaravati is thus an important Kshetra situated at a particularly sacred spot of the holy river Krishna and is a consecrated place of worship, of importance to both Buddhism and Hinduism.

External links

* [http://www.hindubooks.org/temples/andhrapradesh/amaravati/ Amaravati]
* [http://www.templenet.com/Andhra/amararama.html Amararama]