I had a quick visit to Lord Shiva Temple at Srisailam. The shrine of Lord Mallikarjuna is situated on a flat top of Nallamalai Hills (The word 'Nalla' means Beautiful and 'Malai' means Hill). Srisailam is well-known to be one of the most ancient kshetras in India. It is on the right side of the river Krishna in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh. Here river Krishna is called as "Patal Ganga". The plateau of Srisailam is 476 meter above the sea level.
The presiding deities of this kshetram Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy is one of the twelve Jyorthirlingams and Goddess Bhramaramba Devi is one of the eighteen Mahashaktis and both are self-manifested.
The unique features of this kshetram is the combination of Jyotirlingam and Mahashakti in one campus, which is very rare to find.
The temple offers various kinds of darshanam with offerings, there are tickets available to have darshana. People are required to be in pre-defined queue inorder to avoid the rush at temple.
We traveled from Hyderabad and it was just 225 kms far. we reached in four hours. Based on my travel experience I would suggest everyone to have a cab / own vehicle reserved for the trip and of course the accommodation booking must be done in advance because you may not get a hotel to stay on your arrival if not booked in advance. It shows the popularity of the shrine.
Here are some pictures taken by me....
On the way to Srisailam, almost a 40 kms before, the road divides a beautiful forest, and there are signages and instructions for not to speed up your vehicle as you may encounter any species of animal on the road.
Main Shrine and the pathways for devotees to go ahead.
Extreme peak of the hill - "Shikharam", a lot of myths are associated with this top location of Srisailam. This is located approx 16 kms away from the main temple.
River Patalganga (Krishna)
