Gudluru

Gudluru/Gudlur is a village in the Kandukur taluk of Prakasham district of Andhra Pradesh, India and was called Netrapuri in the past and is accessible by bus from Kandukur.

History

The telugu poet Yerrana was born there in the 14th century AD. The name of Gudluru originated from two words, Gudulu and vooru (In telugu, Gudulu: Temples and vooru: village). The name of the village itself signifies that it has been the home of many [temple] s since ancient times. Another prominent telugu poet, Vennelakanti Surana, born here in 16th A.D, translated the Sanskrit Vishnu purana into telugu named "Andhra Sri Vishnu Puranam" describing the incarnation of Lord vishnu. There is a prominent group of Brahmins in this village and in some other places of Andhrapradesh with the surname Gudluru. The Brahmins tribe in this place are continuing to carry the legacy of the ancient poetry born in this place.

Gudluru village old name is Netrapuri

Geography

Original name: Gudlūrugeographical location: Prakasam, Andhra Pradesh, India, Asiageographical coordinates: 15° 4' 0" North, 79° 54' 0" East.
Upputeru and Manneru rivers are passing in the direction of north east to the Gudluru where the ground of the village is situated in upper level. Upputeru passing at a distance of 1.5 km where as manneru is passing at a distance of 4 km. The majority population of this village is farmers whom have fertile lands besides to these rivers.

Gudluru - Nilakanteswaraswamy aalayam

This sacred Siva kshetra has given birth to Errana, one of the great poets, who translated Vysa's Mahabharata into Telugu. This good old temple built during the reign of Maurya Chandragupta contains a grand image of Errana and is adored by literatures with great zeal. The Sivalinga surprises the devotees by its colour - it is white on one side and red on the other side. According to legend, the linga was drinking the milk of a cow in the form of a serpent, and when a cowherd beat the snake, it turned into white Sivalinga, and hence the red colour indicating the blood that came out when received the blow of the cowherd by his axe. Another special feature that strikes the eye here is the enormous tank in which thousand elephants according to local version were swimming at a time. It contains the beautiful images of Chandi, Subrahmanya, Virabhadra, Kumaraswamy etc

According to the elders, this village has 100 temples and 100 lakes. In this flat surface village, a portion of the village has significantly higher level to the remaining village (nearly 2-4 meters) where obliviously some people are living now., named Mittapalem (mitta(in telugu) : a surface which upper to larger plain surface). The mud of the the upper village shows some old mud constructed areas (even now) gave evidence that it is a fortified place in olden days. A big lake (mentioned above) is situated as boundary to the mitta palem at one side which is used as bathing place/for drinking water to the elephants and horses for the fort needs (name of this lake is “Yenugula doruvu” (Yenugu (telugu): means elephant and Doruvu(telugu): a lake).

Another important thing is an equally big and old vaishnvaite temple (temple for Vishnu) situated in the mitta palem of Gudluru in addition to the above said shiva temple. It gave evidence that the village people have equal groups of Shaivism and Vaishnavism since age old years.

In addition to these two big temples, several temples like Pratapa veeraanjaneya swami temple, a completely ruined chennakesava temple (it has a prominent history), Veerabadhra, Vinayaka, ankamma, poleramma etc. and several lakes exist till date as an evidence to the rich history of this village. It is frequent phenomena to find the idols of the Gods by the village people during the each year during the monsoon seasons. Many of idols are abandoned without care and temples.

This village is surrounded by several tiny villages (baireddy palem, venkam peta, mogulluru, chinalateripi, pedalateripi, Janakam peta, narasapuram, Gullapalem, chemidapadu, potluru, kottapeta, Rajupalem, Ammavaripalem, R.C.agraharm, etc.), hence it was also known as "Nethrapuri" (Nethram(Sanskrit)=Kannu/Guddu(in telugu)= eye(English).

Villages in Gudluru Mandal

#Parakondapaduagraharam
#Parakondapadu
#Dappalampadu
#Gundlapalem
#Kothapeta
#Swarnajipuram
#Gudluru
#Basireddypalem
#Darakanipadu
#Puretipalle
#Venkampeta
#Chinalateripi
#Nayudupalem
#Ammavaripalem
#Potluru
#Mocherla
#Ravur
#Chevuru
#Chemidedapadu
#Agraharam

References

http://www.hindubooks.org/templesofindia/siva_to_be_adored/andhra_pradesh/gudlur.htmhttp://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/vinod/maps/AndhraPradesh/Gudlur.htmlhttp://www.maplandia.com/india/andhra-pradesh/prakasam/gudluru/