Temple in Nellore too lacks doors like Shani Shingnapur sees

Not only at Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra that witnesses, no security measures such as doors and locks, centuries old popular shrine of goddess Changala Parameswari located at Sullurpeta is also without doors not only at the entrance to the shrine, but also to the sanctum sanctorum giving a surprise to the devotees. Even though there are instances of criminal gangs targeting temples for robbing valuables at regular intervals this temple still has no doors.

As per the legend, a young cattle grazer, who was caught in a vortex while swimming in the Kalangi river, held on to a stone for survival and managed to come out along with the stone only to find that it was an idol of a goddess. Immediately villagers rushed to the spot and shifted it to a nearby location for installation.

In fact, the shrine's annual revenue is around Rs. 20-25 Cr and devotees constantly present ornaments, saris, and cash as a token of gratitude in case their desires are fulfilled. Normally, lakhs of devotees from Andhra Pradesh as well as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka throng the temple every day and the turnout is huge during Sundays and new moon-day. There is a story that there was an attempt to steal the ornaments of the goddess about 400 years back and the thief lost his vision and was found lying in the temple on the next day which made the temple staff astonished. He regained the vision after the priest prayed to the goddess to forgive him and there were no attempts till now for looting the booty of the temple.

During the beginning of the 19th century, a temple trustee planned to install the doors during an auspicious day and went to the temple along with the villagers. The wooden doors, they made only one day earlier, became a part of a huge tree and even germination of the plant was also noticed on the doors, and so they have not dared a second attempt after the Goddess instructed the priest in his dream soon. Now, darshan is available round the clock to the devotees.

The culture of Tamil Nadu is followed where the idol in the temple faces south where normally presiding deity of any temple usually faces east, Agama experts say. The idol in standing position.

The temple priest Mullapudi Harihara Kumara Sarma said that, "the temple is unique in many ways compared to any other temple in the region."

Kumbhabhishekam is performed once in 12 years only to the temple dome and not to the deity. The temple offers food free of cost to the devotees, every-day afternoon and on Amavasya food is prepared for more than 3,000 devotees.

Apart from the devotees from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, scientists of ISRO also seek blessings of the goddess, especially before every rocket launch after placing the replica of the mission at the feet of the goddess.