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Yeleswaram temple neglected.
The ancient temple of Kakatiya period, Katyayani sahita Mallikarjuna Swamy temple at Yeleswaram gattu is being neglected. The temple at Yeleswaram gattu is a standing testimony to the existence of Satavahanas, Ikshvakus, Vishnu Kundalis, Pashchima Chalukyas and Palanati Kings.
Nalgonda: The ancient temple of Kakatiya period, Katyayani sahita Mallikarjuna Swamy temple at Yeleswaram gattu is being neglected.
The temple at Yeleswaram gattu is a standing testimony to the existence of Satavahanas, Ikshvakus, Vishnu Kundalis, Pashchima Chalukyas and Palanati Kings.
With the construction of Nagarjuna Sagar Project, some of the historical remnants of the shrine were submerged and a few of them were preserved in the museum, situated on an island in the Nagarjuna Sagar dam. The island, also called Yeleswaram hill is above 1,000 feet from the sea level.
Yeleswaram hill, located in the middle of Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir, is at equidistance from Peddavoora and Chandampeta mandals. There are two ways to reach this hill - one is from the dam right bank through Anupu and the second way is from the dam back water through Bugga Thanda and Pogilla villages of Chandampeta mandal of Devarakonda constituency.
The tourists has to travel four to five kilometres by diesel boats crossing a few mountains to reach the temple. This boat tour would be a courageous, thrilling and memorable journey.
As the historic temple falls under wild life forest area, it is mandatory to have permission from the dam authorities, forest and wild life officials to reach there.
It’s learnt that at the time of the project construction, thousands of statues located on and around the hill were shifted to Hyderabad museum, but unfortunately most of them submerged in the river.
Yeleswaram hill with its natural beauty attracts the tourists in large numbers. Before the construction of the project, devotees daily worshipped Yeleswara Swamy. Once the project was completed in 1962, the temple was neglect and no rituals and poojas were performed for almost four decades as the hill became an island in the reservoir.
On the demand of locals, from 2006 the officials have allowed the devotees to conduct annual celebrations of the temple. On this occasion, the devotees are allowed to offer prayers to Goddess Katyayani and Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy during Ekadasi and Shiva Ratri festivals for 26 days.
The forest department has arranged boats on these days for devotees to reach the island. While during other days, nobody is allowed to visit the temple. Sarvaiah, former MPP of Chandampeta mandal, alleged that the earlier governments, who preserved the traces of Acharya Nagarjuna and Gouthama Budha with utmost care were failed to preserve the traces of ancient historical Yeleswara Swamy temple.
The residents of Chandampeta and Peddavoora demanded the State government restoration of the identity of Yeleswaram shrine by developing as a tourist attraction.
They also requested the government to run ferries from Nagarjuna Sagar and Chandampeta Pushkar ghats to Yeleswaram shrine during the forthcoming Krishna Pushkarams so that people will know the glory of the temple.
By: Deekonda Ravishankar
