Amareswara Temple

Legend has it that a demon king, Tarakasura, obtained a boon from Siva that he will only lose a battle by Siva son, considering Siva is Yogi and he will not bear any child. With that confidence, he waged a war on Devas. The war between Indra and the demon Tarakasura raged for many years and Indra lost the battle. Indra then sought the help of Vishnu, who advised Indra to pray to Siva, as the demon had attained the boon from Siva. Siva was reluctant to kill Tarakasura as he was his ardent devotee. Instead, he deputed his elder son Kumara swamy to lead the army of the Devas. Tarakasura wore a Siva Lingam around his neck and hence was invincible. On the advice of Vishnu, Kumara Swamy used Agni Astra (Fire-Weapon) to break the Siva Lingam worn by Demon. When Kumara Swamy killed Tarakasura, broke the lingam broke into five pieces and started re-uniting again. To prevent reunification, Indra, Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Vishnu and Kumara Swamy, established the Lingam with great devotion at five different places now being called as Pancharama Kshetras. Later, Kumara swamy killed Tarakasura.

Indra, with his Guru Brahaspati, took the largest and most significant piece and built a temple and installed the Lingam and named it as God Amareswara. The lingam begin to grow in size, to which the temple had to be altered according to the size of the Linga. As this process continued, Indra on the advice of rishis installed a nail on the top of the Linga and the Linga stopped growing further. (The stains of blood oozed can be seen on linga even today.)

The temple was built by Chalukya Bhima-I of the Vengi Chalukya dynasty in 10th century CE. The temple was elaborated by the feudatories like Kota chiefs, who hailed from Dharanikota, made significant donations to the temple. During the rule of Anavema Reddi of Kondaveedu, the temple underwent renovation to repair the damaged caused during the Islamic invasion into the area as attested by the 1361 CE inscription of Anavema reddi which also mentions the re-installation of Linga.

Srikrishnadevaraya, the mighty Vijayanagara Emperor visited the temple in 1515 CE after his successful Eastern Campaign and built a mandapa inside the second prakara and perfomed a Tula-Bhara (Tulapurusha-danam), in which he offered valuable ornaments equal to his weight to the God Amareshwara. The mandapa is hence called as Tulabhara/Tulapurusha mandapa.

Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu, the local Zamindar of Chinthapalli shifted his capital to the temple town and named after the god Amareswara as Amaravati in 1796-97CE. Venkatadri Naidu expanded and renovated the temple too. He built the outer prakara with four gopuras on four directions and donated land and valuable ornaments. There was also a mandapa built by him beside Srikrishnadevaraya mandapa, called as Venkatadri Naidu mandapa.

The temple is built in altogether a different style consisting of two-stories in which Linga is installed in the first floor which can be reached through a flight of steps. The temple structure consists of Garbhagriha, Arthamandapa, Nandimandapa and Mahamandapa. There are two mandapas at the entrance on south and north sides. 

The Linga is of 14 feet tall and has a pedestal path behind to reach the top and perform abhishekam. There are two chambers on either side of the entrance to main chamber dedicated to Ganesha and the other to goddess Parvati. There is a shrine dedicated to Bala- Chamundika, the consort of Lord Amareswara in the Mahamandapa. There is another temple dedicated to Venugopala, the Kshetra-palaka on the northen side just beside the entrance mandapa. There are shrines in four corners of elevated tier dedicated to Mallikarjuna, Kasi Viswanatha, Pushpadanteswara and Kalahastiswara.

The temple is enclosed by two prakaras(compound walls) in which various sub-shrines are built dedicated to various gods. The inner prakara has temples dedicated to Kala-Bairava, Hanuman, Vinayaka, Kumara swamy and Nagendra swamy(the Serpent god). Inside the inner prakara there are two mandapas consisting of four pillars built by Sri Krishna Deva Raya and Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu, called after them. The outer prakara consists of shrines dedicated to Agastestwara, Omkarareswara, Dattatreya, Veerabhadra and Goddess Mahishasura Mardini. 

The walls and pillars are of plain without any carvings or decorative features. The huge monolithic Nandi placed inside the Nandimandapa of the main structure and the 14 feet tall Sivalinga carved out of Palnadu Limestone are the main attractions of the temple. There are Dwarapalaka sculptures on either sides of the three entrances door jambs. There is a statue of Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu seen with folded hands facing the Linga.

The main festivals celebrated in the temple are Maha Sivaratri, Nava-ratris and annual Kalyanostavam.

5 AM -1PM, 3PM- 8PM