The Saivaite temples of Srisailam, celebrated in devotion, tradition and history from the second centure A.D, stand on a plateau on the top of a hill named Srisailam in the Nallamalai ranges in Kurnool district. The Lord, Mallikarjuna, and his consort, Bhramaramba, are held in great veneration by countless devotees.
Temple History
According to ancient shrines, in the fourth century A.D, a queen of the Vakataka dynasty, which had succeeded the Satavahanas in a part of the Deccan, was a great devotee of Lord Mallikarjuna of Srisailam. Most of the dynasties that followed showered gifts on the Srisailam temples. As late as the fourteenth century, a Kakatiya king and queen performed the spectacular ceremony in the Mallikarjuna temple of weighing themselves against precious objects, which were distributed among the poor and deserving. A king of Kondavidu, who followed the Kakatiyas, constructed steps on the Srisailam hill and placed golden pinnacles on the Vimana of the Mallikarjuna temple. Krishnadeva made many valuable gifts to the temple and some of his officers built additions to it.
The most striking incident in the history of the temples is the visit of Shivaji in 1674. He is said to have built one of the gopuras. He left behind a small contingent of Maratha soldiers to defend the temples. When some Muslims attempted to attack them, these resisted them to the last man. To this day, descendants of these great men come to Srisailam once a year to celebrate a festival in their honour.
Temple Architecture
A distinctive feature of the temples is that they are located in a large prakara enclosed by sculptured walls. In fact, the temple area looks like a fort. The walls are made of huge blocks of stone revetted to each other. There are sculptures in profusion on the northern, eastern and southern walls, and fewer ones on the western. There are five regular rows of sculpture on the walls from above the base. The first contains figures of the elephant in many postures. The next has reliefs of the horse, the warrior, the hunter and the dancer. The next three are full of superb sculpture representing deities and scenes from Saivaite traditions. Above these, there are occasional reliefs of deities, birds and animals. On the copings of the walls are Lingas, nandis, the lion and the swan.
All the shrines except one stand in a group within the prakara walls. The exception, that of the Godess, is located a little farther away. Four gopuras pierce the walls in the four directions. Only the base of the western tower has survived, the other parts have fallen down. All the three other gopuras are of Vijayanagar times. The most striking is the northern, later named after Shivaji. It contains some superb panel reliefs.
Other Information
A part of the Srisailam pilgrimage is a visit to the Patalaganga in order to bathe there. Many pilgrims carry the water uphill in order to bathe the icon of Lord Mallikarjuna. There are many shrines on either sides of the pathway. One of them is the temple of Umamesvara, considered artistically the finest in Srisailam. Perhaps the oldest structure on Srisailam is the Vriddha Mallikarjuna temple. It stand near the Mallikarjuna temple.