Legend has it that the Linga is so powerful and being worshiped by many saints and devas since many yugas. Indra, the Adipathi of Devas once killed a demon (Asura) of Brahmin origin upon he reached Vemulawada and worshipped Rajarajeswara Linga to get purified himself from the Brahmahatya Mahapatam, the sin of killing a Brahmin.

In Bhavishyothara Purana, it is mentioned that Surya, the sun god recovered from his disability caused due to a curse from a saint by praying at the shrine here.

Vemulawada is a historically prominent site as the capital city of Vemulawada Chalukyas, a branch of Badami Chalukyas and vassals of the Rastrakutas. This dynasty ruled in 9^th and 10^th centuries CE in major areas of upper Telangana and parts of Andhra and Maharashtra.  This dynasty is peculiar as they claimed their origin from Sun descent unlike other branches of Chalukyas who claimed from lunar descent. The place is mentioned in inscriptions as Lembulawada or Lembu-lavataka. In time course it settled as Vemulawada derived from two words Vemula (Demula) meaning Gods and Wada meaning residence. The famous poet Bhima belongs to this place and the famous Kannada poet Pampa, who rendered Mahabharatam into Kannada lived here in the court of Arikesari II, the Vemulawada Chalukyan ruler.

The temple of Rajarajeswari existed by the time of 9^th century attested by an inscription found at Bhimeswara temple registering the gifts made to the temples and the names of Sthanapathis, the temple heads are mentioned in it. It was Narasimha I of the Vemulawada Chalukyan branch titled as Rajaditya, laid the foundation to the Rajarajeswara temple. The temple received significant development under the rule of Vemulawada Chalukyas and later received patronage from various ruling classes that came into power in the area such as Kalyani Chalukyas, Kakatiyas and other local chiefs.

Once, an important center of Jainism, favored by the royalty and the people alike Vemulawada abounds in vestiges of the faith as attested by the striking sculptures of Vardhamana and other Tirthankaras.

Architecture

 The temple is enclosed in a prakara with main entrance in the east surmounted by a gopura. There is another entrance in the western portion of north wall surmounted by a smaller gopura. Outside the temple in the north-east corner, there is a large temple tank with steps to reach bottom on all four sides and pillared corridor on south face.

The main shrine is built in the center of the courtyard inside prakara. The shrine consist of a garbhagriha, arthamandapa, mukhamandapa and mahamandapa. The doorframe of the garbhagriha belongs to the Kalyani-Chalukyan style. There are two major subsidiary shrines one dedicated to Bala Tripura Sundari, the consort of Siva and the other dedicated to Anantha Padmanabha, the Sayana form of Vishnu. In addition to these there are other subsidiary shrines found in the courtyard.

Temples dedicated to Bhimeswara and Kedareswara built in Vemulawada style are also famous at the place.

(All the structures in the temple are renovated in modern times.)

Art & Sculpture

The temple consist of beautifully carved icons of various gods and goddess belonging to various periods. The noteworthy images in the temple are Chandikeswari, Ananthapadmanabha, Ganesha, Saptamatrikas and Annapurna.

There are many loose sculptures of Jain faith found in the temple which include Mahaveera and Chowmukh pillars.

The most celebrated festival in the temple is the day of Sivaratri on which special rituals and pujas are performed in the temple. Events like annual Kalyanostavam is also celebrated on grand scale.

A special act locally known as ‘Kodemokku’ is conducted in the temple in which a young ox is chosen and treated as the representative of Lord is made to make circumambulations around the temple. This act is consider sacred by the locals and believed to uproot any obstacles and cause wellness in the state.

4.30AM – 10.00PM