Chennakesava Temple

Legend has it that the Lord Vishnu appeared here after the event of Gajendra-moskha, the story in which the Elephant was being bitten by a crocodile. The elephant prayed for the Vishnu to free him from the painful clutches of the crocodile to which the Vishnu took his Chakra and cutoff the crocodile neck. People believe that the incident happed at Ettipotala water fall.

The main temple of Chennakesava was supposed to have been built by Brahmanaidu, minister of Haihaya family and the Verabhadra temple was built in 16th century by the Vijayanagara rulers. There is an inscription dated to 1113 CE called as Nagasthamba provides geneology of sculptors who built the temple and records the donations made to a Sun temples.
As per the temple architecture (now modernized), the original temple belong to the Kalyana Chalukya period which was renovated during thee later periods. The temple received prominence during 12th- 14th centuries under the Haiheyas, Kakatiyas, Reddy and Vijayanagara rulers. The town in those times is known as Mahadevicherla/Mahadevipura named after a huge lake named Mahadevithataka.

Architecture:

The temple is enclosed in a prakara with the entrance in the east surmounted by a modern gopura (temple tower). There are three shrine in the courtyard and the main shrine consist of the garbhagriha, an antharala, mukhamandapa and mahamandapa. The architecture of the original temple is now lost due to the modernization in recent times. The garbhagriha is a square chamber with the idol of Lord Chennakesava fixed on an elevated platform. The antharala is a small chamber connecting the sanctum with the mukhamandapa. The mukhamandapa is a pillared hall closed with walls on sides with entrance on the east. The central four pillars forms the rangamandapa. The mukhamandapa is connected with mahamandapa, a later construction is an open hall consisting of pillars in rows. There is a tall Vimana of Dravidian order above the garbhagriha built in Kakatiya style and has sukanasi projection on the arthamandapa.
There are two shrine beside the main shrine, one dedicated to Lord Siva known by Giriswara temple and other is a dilapidated shrine without any idol. The Giriswara temple is as old as the Main shrine but now fully modernized. There is four pillar mandapas in front of the temple tower and a tall monolithic dwajastamba. The balipeetam is designed as a pyramidal structure with five levels diminishing one above the other.

Art & Sculpture:

The main idol temple is a beautiful sculpture of Chennakesava carved of black polish granite depicted in standing pose with four arms holding Shanku, Chakra in hind arms and Padma, Gadha(mace) in fore arms. There is idol of Lakshmi devi depicted with four arms holding lotus in upper arms. There are life-size dwarapalaka sculptures of Jaya and Vijaya are there standing on either side of antharala hall.
The pillars of the Rangamandapa has the beautiful carvings as that of Pangal temple. There are scenes of Ramayana such as Maya-Ledi (Mystic deer), Vali-Sugreeva combat, Rama-Ravana war and Ravana shaking Kailasa, scenes of Mahabharata such as dice-game, Aswamedha yaga and Arjuna-Karna battle. There are carvings of Sagara-madhana (curning of ocean), Dasaavatharas, Krishna lifting Govardhanagiri and Tripura-samhara. The most interesting sculpture is the rare Ganesha-Gajasura/Durasada combat which is mentioned in Ganesha purana.

The most celebrated festival in the temple is the annual Brahmostavams held for fifteen days during which Kalyanostavam and Radhostavam also takes place. The temple chariot is around 60 feet tall and one of the tallest in the state and draws huge crowd.

6AM- 11AM, 3PM-8PM