Srisailam Temple History

As per the Legends, where a princess called Chandravathi who was the daughter of a Gupta King called Chandragupta, is said to have offered daily a garland of jasmine flowers to the God in Srisailam and eventually married him. The legend embodied in one of the stone records of the 16th century.

The popular story runs as follows:

“Years ago, there lived a princess named Chandravathi who was the daughter of a King who ruled from the Chandragupta Patnam, on the northern bank of the Krishna river. Her father was a valiant warrior who used to be absent from his court quite often due to his other pre-occupations. The princess Chandravathi grew up into a beautiful maiden. She was very pious and devoted by nature and due to a domestic calamity, she went to a forest of Srisailam on the southern side of the river for prayer and penance. She took nothing with her except a faithful herdsman and some cattle.

The princess was living with the herdsman and the cattle, and living mainly on the forest produce, and upon the milk produced from the cows. She noticed that one black cow out of the herd was not giving any milk at all. She there up on instructed the herdsman to find out the reason for this and to watch the cow. The herdsman hid behind the cow, and watched its movements and came back and reported, that it was not yielding any milk because it gave up all its milk during the course of its wanderings. on a black stone image of Siva in the form of Linga. The princess also witnessed the scene. The night Lord appeared in the dreams of the princess and told her that the black stone lying in the forest was nothing but a manifestation of the Lord Himself. He enjoined upon the princess, the necessity for building a temple around his own Linga.

Another Leged concerning the origin of this temple, among the tribal population, called Chenchus, who live in this part of the hills. According to the Legend prevalent among the Chenchus tribes, Lord Siva came once to Srisailam on a hunting expedition and fell in love with a beautiful Chenchu woman, whom he married, and who used to accompany him in his hunting expeditions to the neighbouring forests. Hence, even today Lord Mallikarjuna is known among these tribes as “Chenchu Mallaiah”.

Srisailam Temple Construction

From the lithic records, preserved in the temple, however, do not take us back earlier than the 14th century A.D. When the Kakatiya King, Prataparudra was ruling at Warangal. The earliest inscriptions of the temple refer only to his reign. The Vijayanagara Kings greatly improved the temple and Harihara the second in 1405 A.D.,  constructed the Mukhamantap in front of the shrine chamber. Proudhadeva Raya of the same dynasty also visited the temple. Temple temples were built by a Reddi King of the Kondaveedu dynasty during 15th and 16th centuries A.D.

Srisailam Temple Timings: 4:30 am – 10:00 am

Interesting places at Srisailam Temple

1. Sakshi Ganapathi Temple
2. Bayalu Veerabhadra Swamy Temple
3. Pala Dhaara and Pancha Dhaara, where Adi Sankarcharya performed penance.
4. Sri Akkamaha Devi Temple
5. Sri Hatakeswara Swamy Temple
6. Srisaila Dam
7. Srisaila Sikara Darshan place

How to reach Srisailam Temple?

By Air

1. The Nearest International airport is at Hyderabad which is 199 km away.

By Train

1. The nearest railway station is at Markapur which is 81 km away.

By Road

1. The direct bus is available to Srisailam from all parts of the state.

Srisailam Temple Gallery

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