Mangalagiri

Andra Pradesh > Guntur > Mangalagiri

Mangalagiri is situated between Vijayawada and Guntur on Chennai-Kolkata national highway No.5. It is at 19 kilometres from Guntur, and 12 kilometres from Vijayawada. It is at an altitude of 30 meters above the sea level. Latitude is 16.44 degrees North, and longitude is 80.56 degrees East.

In the east-west direction, the main parts of Mangalagiri town are Bypass Road, Main Bajaar, Old Grand trunk road, and Railway station. In the North-South direction, the main parts are Old Mangalagiri, New Mangalagiri, and Kotha Peta. The boundaries for Mangalagiri town are - East - Atmakuru village, West - Navuluru village and Bapuji Nagar, North - Hill and Over bridge and South - Chinakakani village.

In 2001, the Municipal town population was enumerated as 61,981. Including floating population, it counts to one lakh. The area of the Town is 10.49 sq.km. There are 32 municipal wards, and 43,724 voters.

The main occupation in the town is Hand-loom weaving. Nearly 50% of the population dependent on this cottage industry only. Because of the Hand-loom dress material produced in the town, Mangalagiri is placed in the world map.

Mangalagiri is a pilgrim centre. There is a temple on the hill dedicated to Lord Panakala Narasimha Swamy. Here, jaggery water is offered to the lord by the devotees. It is said in the scriptures that, the lord is being worshiped since Satya Yuga (The first of the four yugas). In the down hill there is another temple dedicated to Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. It is said that, Yudhishtira (Dharmaraju, the eldest of the Pandavas) installed the main deity in this temple. The temple has a very tall tower with beautiful sculpture which has 11 stairs. It was constructed by Raja Vasireddi Venkatadri Naidu, during the years 1807-09.

Around Mangalagiri, the places of tourist interest are Chinna Jeeyar ashram in Seeta Nagaram, Vundavalli Caves, Bhavani Island, Kanakadurga temple in Vijayawada direction and Jain Temple, Uppalapadu Birds sanctuary, Amaravati in Guntur direction.

About Temple

Mangalagiri has two temples, one at the foothills dedicated to Lakshmi Narasimha and the other on the Mangalagiri hill dedicated to Pankala Narasimha.

Pankala (Paanakam in tamil) - a solution of jaggery (unrefined sugar) in water, is the offering made to the presiding deity Narasimha. This offering is actually poured into the mouth of the rock cut image of the deity. It is believed that exactly half the amount of the liquid poured, is regurgitated by the image. Also interestingly, despite the liberal use of sugar (unrefined), there are no ants in the temple premises. It should be noted that the only shrine in this temple is that of Narasimha.

The Mangalagiri hill is in the shape of an elephant. Legend has it that a certain prince by name Hrusva Sringi was born with a number of bodily deformities dedicated himself to a life of prayer, assuming a form of a huge elephant, at the mouth of which Narasimha took abode.

The temple tank is known as the Lakshmi Pushkarini. Legend has it that this pushkarini was created by the Gods, combining the waters from several holy rivers of the land, and that Mahalakshmi (who came out of the milky ocean when it was churned by the gods and the asuras), bathed in this pushkarini and married Vishnu thereafter.

Legend has it that Rama offered worship to Narasimha here.

The temple at the foothills of Mangalagiri - dedicated to Lakshmi Narasimha, has an imposing 11 storeyed raja gopuram built by a local chieftain. Inscriptions indicate that the Vijayanagar monarch Krishna Deva Raya visited this temple. This temple celebrates it's annual festival in March.

Legend has it that this temple was founded by the Pandava prince Yuddhishtra. It is to be noted that the Indrakila hill in Vijayawada is associated through the Kiratarjuniya legend with Arjuna. It is to be noted that that legend has it that that the Mallikarjuna temple at Vijayawada was installed by Yuddhishtra and that the Vijayeswara temple there was installed by Arjuna.