A sleepy little town that comes alive on the two Pradosham days every month, Surutupalli is located approximately 70 Kms from Tirupati on the main Chennai – Puttur road, near the Andhra - Tamil Nadu border near Uthukotai.
The
Sarvamangala samedha Pallikondeshwara Swami Temple at Surutupalli has so many
unique features, that it seems strange that not many people know about it. This
is the only Shivasthala where the Lord Shiva presides in the reclining (sayana)
position, that too, resting his head on the lap of the Goddess Parvathi. This
is the place where the Pradosha Puja was first performed.
Legend: During the
Amrutmanthan, when the Devas and Asuras were churning the divine ocean of
milk, using the king of serpents, Vasuki,
as a rope around the Manthara Mountain,
there came a time when Vasuki could not bear the pain and vomited poison. All
the Devas and Asuras prayed to Lord Shiva to save them from this terrible halahala poison
which would have killed the entire world. The Lord acceded to their pleas and
swallowed the poison. The divine Mother Parvathi, who takes care of the whole
world, put a hand to stop the poison at the throat itself. The Lord thus came to
be known as Sri Neelakantan and the Goddess as Sarvamangala. On their way back
to Kailas after this episode, when they reached Surutupalli, the Lord wanted to
rest because probably he was feeling dizzy after consuming the poison. So he lay down
with his head placed comfortably on the lap of the Goddess. The sculptural
depiction of mother Parvathi sitting with the Lord’s head on her lap, trying to
hold the neck tight with her two hands, lest the poison burn the worlds inside
is unimaginably beautiful. All the Gods, including Lord Ganesh and Karthikeya
Swami with his consorts, Valli and Devasena, sages and rishis stand praying to
the Lord.
Lord Pallikondeshwarar
and Goddess Sarvamangala bless them and all other devotees who come to pray to
them.
As one enters the temple, there is a
separate sanctum for Goddess Maragadambika with Kamadenu, the divine cow, to
the left and Kalpavriksh, the tree that offers everything that you wish for, to
the right. Sage Valmiki, is said to have prayed to the Lord and obtained his
blessings here before writing the Ramayana epic. The Lord who appeared before Valmiki
as a Swayambhu Linga is known as Valmikeshwarar. All the abhishekams are
performed for Lord Valmikeshwarar.
Another feature of
this temple is that Lord Dakshinamurthy can be seen in the poorna swarupam with
consort Gowri to his left. Nowhere else in the world, can we get this unique
darshan of Dambathi samedha Dakshinamurthy.
Nandikeshwarar takes
his pride of place in front of the Lord. During the Pradosha puja, devotees
clamour to see the abhishekams to Nandikeshwarar and then see the Lord through
the space in between the horns of Nandikeshwarar, as the Lord is believed to
dance the ananda thandavam with his foot on Nandikeshwarar’s head.
There is a shrine to
Sita, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, Shatrugna and Anjaneya swami. There are
separate shrines to Poorna Pushkala samedha Dharmashastha, Sri Nrithya
Ganapathi, Sri Subramanian Swami with Valli and Devasena, Sri Vishnu Durga, Sri
Kalabhairavar, Sri Kashi Viswanatha Swami with Vishalakshi, Sri Venugopalaswami
and Sri Ramalingeshwarar. A shrine to
the Navagrahas is also present.
Important Festivals:
Every Pradhosham, especially Shani-Pradhosham, Maha Shivarathri, Thiruvadhirai,
Navarathri and the Tamil and Telugu New Year days.
Temple Timings: 6 am
-12 noon and 4 pm – 8 pm.
Tel: 08576 – 278599
Note: On every
Shani-Pradosham day and on important festival days, Pallikondeshwara Swami and
Sarva Mangala Devi are bedecked with silver kavachams,
which was interestingly donated by a devotee from Chennai. There is a huge
queue on these days and one has to be prepared to wait his turn for the darshan, but the grand sight of the
bejeweled Lord is well worth the wait.
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