MANGALAGIRI AND UNDAVALLI

It had just rained and we were a bit free at the workplace. An idle mind is a devil’s workshop. We had a devilish idea of roaming around Vijayawada. Finally, the devil was killed by Goddess Kanakadurga who abodes Indrakiladri at Vijayawada, because we decided to visit the temple as it was an auspicious day, the evening after lunar eclipse. But, the curd in our mind was so churned that butter had to be separated. The butter came in the form of a short trip to Mangalagiri and Undavalli.

Initially we had thought of going to Bhavani Island, Amaravathi, Suryalanka or Hamsaladeevi. We wanted our first trip to be a short one, as many of our friends couldn't join us. We decided on Mangalagiri temple. As I was going through Mangalagiri and places to visit nearby Vijayawada in the internet, I came across Undavalli which was closer by than Mangalagiri. We decided to make it to both places.

Thanks to Google maps and Wikipedia, I had a fair idea of the route we would follow. So, plan in the mind, bikes checked and four of us on them left for our first excursion on a beautiful Sunday morning of June 19^th of 2011 (beautiful morning because, usually it 's very hot in Vijayawada, the heat saps off your energy on an outdoor trip, but today was cooler, which made an excellent weather for a bike ride. We wouldn't have minded if it had drizzled, though!). We had planned such that we would go to Mangalagiri by NH 5, visit the temples and go to Undavalli by old NH 5, Vijayawada-Guntur road and follow the same road back to Vijayawada.

We left our Hospital at 10.45 am (It would have been better to leave early, but can’t help that, such is the medical profession). It took us about half an hour to reach Mangalagiri on NH 5 (about 13-15 km). One takes a right turn to go to town from there, but with construction work on NH 5, we had to go 200-300 m farther, take a U-turn, then a right turn at a Petrol Bunk on Tenali road. This took us into the heart of the city and after about 1-1.5 km, we could find a board to our left giving the direction to the Temple to the right stating that the temple is about 0.5 km. We turned right at the next circle and unfortunately there were no directions after that. We reached the temple complex following the road which was broader than others! We reached a circle where to our left was Shri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple and the road straight ahead lead to the hill which  homes Shri Panakala Narasimha Swamy temple (Panakam is Jaggery-Cardamom water) . As we enter this road, at the foothills, there is a Shri Ventateshwara Swamy temple. The road leads to the ghat of the hill. The temple authority collects Rs. 2 per vehicle for parking at the start of the ghat. After the mind chilling experience of the ghat (unfortunately a short ride), we parked our vehicles and entered the under construction temple complex. We left our footwear with a vendor who collects Rs. 2 per pair for safekeeping.

There was a long queue for the free darshan, but we  found a smaller paid queue (Rs. 50 per person) darshan, before which we had to take a ticket for the panakam (Rs. 45 per vessel). We were then led into the temple where one of  a kind  Narasimha sits with his mouth wide open who drinks a bit of the panakam you have bought for him through a shell (shankham) and the rest of the panakam was blessed to take back home. We filled the bottles we had taken for this purpose and drank a bit of the panakam as prasadam. It’s said that the hill is volcanic. It’s also one of the 8 important Mahakshetrams.  Mahakshetrams. It is said in the scriptures that the Lord has continually been worshiped here since Satya yuga (the first of the four yugas).  After quenching our thirst with the holy refreshing and rejuvenating drink, we climbed the footsteps beside the temple (to the left) to visit Rajalakshmi amma’s temple. We had to fight our way into the temple as there was no queue or people to regulate the devotees. The deity is a beautiful stone carving that emerges above eye level, easy to miss if you are looking at the priest or searching for the Goddess at the priest's level.

After clicking a few photos and finding our way back to our bikes, we climbed down the hill to visit Shri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple. The ‘Gali Gopuram’ of the temple is a majestic 11 storied tower which is an awesome sight to look at. It was built about 200 years ago. The temple, as per the legend was found by Dharmaraja (Yudhishtira) in Dwapara yuga. We could park our bikes outside the temple and after leaving our footwear with the vendor, we rushed into the temple as it was nearing closing time (1 pm). Then we went to the Rajalashmi amma’s temple beside (to the left) the main temple and sought her blessings too. Both the deities are very beautiful and offer you bliss and awaken the spiritual centre of the brain.

It was 1.10 by the time we left the temple with heart full of spiritual energy. But bodily energy in the form of food was lacking and soon we were in a hypoglycemic state. The Great Indian Hotel refilled our glucose levels in the form of meal (Rs.30), parathas (Rs. 20/2 parathas) and beverage. Follow the road to the left of the temple, when you get to the main road called Trunk Road/Vijayawada-Guntur highway, turn to your right. At about 200-300 m, you should find the hotel to your right. High in the spirits now, we headed to our second destination Undavalli following the same road . Food in the stomach, goggles on the eyes, cool weather and good road constantly provoked us to ride faster on our bikes. We had a hard time controlling the impulse. About 6-7 km drive after passing 2-3 villages, we came to Undavalli Centre. Ahead us lay a bridge which led to Vijayawada. We had to turn to our right and continue on the smooth stretch of the road. In about half a km, we crossed Buckingham Canal built by the British to irrigate the lands. About 2.5 km from Undavalli centre, to our left stood the mesmerising ‘Caves of Undavalli’.

It was love at first sight for us. We were struck by the beauty of these four storied man made caves carved out of solid sandstone. We parked our bikes outside the fenced area of the cave complex, paid the fee of Rs. 5 to the Archaeological Department and entered the complex. The ground floor is half built and raw in appearance. We oohed and aahed and shouted inside the cave and awoke a few sleeping bats. Then we went to the second floor by the steps outside the cave. The second floor is dedicated to the Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This is one of the very few temples where you can find the idol of Lord Brahma. Then we went up to the third floor by the steps inside the cave. We were welcomed by the carvings of avatars of Lord Vishnu inside the cave and four saints and two lions outside the cave. To the left end of the cave slept on his Adishesha, and praised by the Gods and Saints, was Ananta Padmanabha Swamy, with all his charms cast upon us. The Lord is 25 feet long and 3-5 feet wide and is carved out of a single rock by about 64 saints in 1^st century (the building of these caves with many other caves nearby was started in 1^st century and it’s not yet completed till now!). We had the blessings of him upon us and climbed to the next floor by the steps outside the cave. This contained two empty rooms but nothing more could be found. So, we climbed to the next floor from the left of the caves with a bit of difficulty as there were no steps. We then climbed upon the rocky hill above the caves and were greeted by the picturesque view of backwaters of Krishna River and Vijayawada beyond it and agricultural land surrounding us. The greenery around us evoked the swirls of emotions which can only be calmed down by more such other trips. We were also greeted by descendants of some of our ancestors from whom we had to save our bags. We spent about half an hour there and climbed down (fortunately, or unfortunately, we found the steps to the right side of the caves) to the green grass and took rest on the tree shade recollecting our experiences of the day.

We left the caves with a heavy heart and ice cream filled stomach back on the same road, stopped in between to have some water in the village. We reached Undavalli centre and took left from there on to the bridge and entered the familiar area of Prakasam barrage within two minute drive (about 1 km). We stopped at the barrage to have a view of the backwaters, Bhavani Island and water falling off the barrage. We also saw a few people walking below these mini waterfalls and having a bath. We planned to do this sometime later. We reached our hospital by 3.45 pm.

Exhausted we slept off for about two hours dreaming again and again about the stories of Mangalagiri and Undavalli, re-living those eras and today’s five hour excursion.

Ms Urmi, Dr Manjiri, Dr Pravin, Dr Chethan

Thanks to my fellow travellers Dr. Manjiri Deshpande, Dr. Pravin Verma, Ms. Urmi Chakraborty, Dr. Abhilash BG.


Thanks to Dr Navin Menon Sir for spending his valuable time to edit the post.