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Simhadri or Simhachalam temple is a Hindu temple located near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, South India. It is dedicated to the incarnation (Avatar) of Vishnu known as Narasimha (the man-lion). The temple is a mix of Orissan (main/central shrine) and Dravidian (entrance) styles of architecture.

Entrance Tower(GOPURAM) to Simhachalam Temple

Origin of the name[link]

Simha: Lion ; Adri or Achala: Hill (one which cannot be moved, viz. hill).

Atop the hill is a famous temple said to be the abode of Varaha Narasimha Swami, and hence the hill itself is called (nara) simhachalam. The temple is situated in the city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Lord narasimha rock statue backyard simhachalam temple

Significance[link]

It is one of the eighteen "Naarasimha Kshetras" i.e. shrines of Lord Narasimha in India. Simhachalam temple is known as the second richest temple in India (after Tirupati) earning a revenue of Rs. 520 million. The main deity inside the temple sanctorum gives "nijaroopa darshan" (holy appearance in true form) for only 12 hours in a year i.e. on Akshaya Tritiya day, the rest of the time the deity is covered with Sandalwood paste. The darshan described as 'Chandana yatra' or 'Chandanotsavam' falls every year in Vaisakha masa (May).

Legend[link]

Hiranyakasipu was a Rakshasa king. He was in fact one of Vishnu's Dwarapalakas or gate keepers in Vaikuntha, Jaya and Vijaya. They had to take birth in the mortal world thrice because of a curse given by Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanathana and Sanathkumara, who were not allowed to take darshan of Mahavishnu by them. The other palaka was born as his brother Hiranyaaksha.

Hiranyakasipu wanted to become immortal and hence performed austerities (tapasya) to propitiate Lord Brahma. However, Lord Brahma said that was not possible so Hiranyakasipu asked Lord Brahma to grant him a boon so that he could not be killed by any animal or a man neither in the morning nor in the night, by any weapons, neither in sky nor on the earth.

Hiranyakasipu wanted the entire world to worship him. But, Prahalada, his son, was a devotee of Lord Narayana and always expressed his bhakti towards Him. In spite of warning him several times, Hiranyakasipu could not alter Prahlada's devotion.

This made Hiranyakasipu angry and he made numerous attempts to get Prahlada killed. One of them was to throw him off the top of a mountain. However, Vishnu rescued him by moving the mountain and made a small path for Prahaladha. It is said that in the place where the Lord stood to protect Prahaladha is the place where the temple is built.

The most important thing about this temple is that here we can't see the God's feet. It is said that the feet is buried inside the earth. Lord Narayana came to rescue Parahalada on Garuda and when they threw Parahalada Lord Narayana jumped from Garuda to save him and in this process his feet went deep into the earth.

History[link]

Simhachalam Temple

It has Sri Varahalakshmi Narasimha Swamy as the presiding deity. The deity at Simhachalam, the lion-man incarnation of Lord Mahavishnu is usually covered with sandalwood paste. The original shape of the deity in the tribhanga posture has two hands with the head of a lion on a human torso. An inscription dated as far back as 1098 AD of the Chola King Kuloththunga provides some clue as to its antiquity. Another inscription shows a Queen of the Eastern Ganga of Kalinga (ancient Orissa) (1137-56 AD) covering the image with gold while a third inscription says the eastern Ganga King of Orissa, Narasimha Deva, built the main/central shrine in 1267 A.D. With more than 252 inscriptions in Oriya and Telugu describing the antecedents of the temple, it is a historically important monument.

Newly constructed roads and inquiry counter at the entrance

Sri Krishna Deva Raya after defeating the Gajapati ruler of Orissa Gajapati Prataparudra Dev visited the shrine twice in 1516 AD and 1519 AD and offered numerous villages for maintenance of bhogam (worship) along with valuable jewellery of which an emerald necklace is still in the temple. For the last three centuries the royal family of Vizianagaram, "The Pusapati Gajapathi's" have been the temple's trustees. Giripradhikshana (circumambulation) around the hill range (~40 km) from Hanumantha vaka/MVP colony to Simhachalam is done by piligrims during the auspicious days. Crowds of elderly people/youth/children are observed walking the 40 km stretch over night. They visit the temple after the long journey and give their offerings to the deity.

Recent developments[link]

In October 2007, the Government of Andhra Pradesh approved a master plan for the development of the region into Divyakshetram on similar lines of Tirumala.

Trivia[link]

The Simhachalam temple faces west unlike so many others which face east. An east-facing entrance, according to religious belief, brings prosperity while a west-facing one brings victory.

It is said that when Muslims during one of their invasions were about to destroy and plunder the temple, a poet by name Kurmanatha implored Lord Varaha Narasimha to save his temple and the Hindus. In response to his fervent prayers, a huge swarm of copper hornets suddenly appeared and attacked the invading army and drove them out of the city. The swarm disappeared behind a hillock after driving out the Muslim armies. That hillock is now known as Tummedala Metta (Tummedala=of hornet, Metta=hillock).

The hilltop road, as well as the location of the eastern ghat ranges are beautiful and picturesque. The hills are densely populated with trees like cashew, shrubs, mango groves, etc. The forestry is protected and well conserved. The greenery attracts tourists as well as nature lovers.

The localities near the piligrame include Srinivasanagar, Prahladapuram, Sainagar colony, Simhapuri colony and many other housing areas.

Gallery[link]

Roads laid up to the Gopuram, or the entrance to the Simhachalam Temple.

A newly constructed parking lot opposite to the Gopuram

The long hike towards Simhachalam

See also[link]

• Sri Simhachala Kshetra Mahima, 1965 Telugu film.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Simhachalam

• About Simhachalam Temple
• VIZAGWAVES - Simhachalam Temple Picture Gallery
• Simhachalam Temple
• http://www.go2india.in/ap/simhachalam.php
• details of Simhachalam temple

Coordinates: 17°45′N 83°14′E / 17.75°N 83.233°E / 17.75; 83.233

Pawan Kalyan
Born	Konidala Kalyan Babu (1971-09-02) 2 September 1971 (age 40)[1][2] Bapatla, Andhra Pradesh, India [3]
Residence	Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Other names	Pawan Kalyan, Power Star[4][5]
Occupation	Actor, Director, Screenwriter, Action Choreographer, Choreography, Playback Singer, Producer
Years active	1996 – present
Spouse	Renu Desai (2009 – present)[6]
Children	Akira Nandan Aadhya
Parents	Venkat Rao Konidala Anjana Devi Konidala
Relatives	Chiranjeevi Konidala (brother) Nagendra Babu Konidala (brother) Ram Charan Teja Konidala (nephew) Arjun Allu (2nd nephew) Aravind Allu (brother-in-law) Rama Lingaiah Allu (father-in-law of brother)

Pawan Kalyan (Telugu: పవన్ కళ్యాణ్; born Konidala Kalyan Babu on 2 September 1971)^[2] is an Indian film actor, director, screenwriter and action choreographer in Telugu cinema. He is the brother of Indian actor Chiranjeevi. He made his acting debut in 1996 with Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbayi.

In 1998, he was starred in Tholi Prema which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu for that Year. He is known for his works in other blockbusters like Gokulamlo Seetha, Suswagatham, Thammudu, Badri, Kushi, Jalsa and Gabbar Singh ^[7]

Personal life[link]

Born to Konidela Venkata Rao and Anjana Devi,^[8] Pawan Kalyan is the younger brother of Chiranjeevi and Nagendra Babu.^[9] After his divorce from Nandini,^[10] Pawan Kalyan married Renu Desai on 28 January 2009. She co-starred with him in the films Badri and Johnny^[10] and has worked as costume designer for most of his films. The couple have two children, a son named Akira Nandan born in 2004 and a girl named Aadhya born in 2010. Akira was named after Pawan Kalyan's favorite director Akira Kurosawa.

Kalyan is trained in martial arts.^{[11][12][13][14]} He holds a black belt in karate^[15] and has displayed his skills in several of his films. He publicly performed his martial arts skills at several auditoriums.^[16] He was awarded the title "Pawan", symbolizing Hanuman. From then, Kalyan Babu became popular as Pawan Kalyan.^[17][18][19]

His brother-in-law Allu Aravind is an Indian film producer. Ram Charan Teja Konidala and Allu Arjun are other actors from the family. Pawan Kalyan is a vegetarian. He is highly influenced by Che Guevara, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Swami Vivekananda's philosophy.^[20]

Career[link]

Pawan Kalyan entered the Telugu movie industry with Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbayi (1996) as Kalyan Babu in which he performed martial arts action sequences. His second movie was Gokulamlo Seetha (1997), which is a remake of the 1996 Tamil film Gokulathil Seethai. He also starred in Suswagatham, which is also a remake of a Tamil film Love Today (1997).

In 1998, Tholi Prema released and received 6 Nandi Awards and National Award for the Best Feature Film (Telugu).^[21] After Tholi Prema, Pawan acted in Thammudu (1999) playing the role of a kickboxer. Pawan In 2000, he featured in Puri Jagannadh's first directorial venture Badri. Pawan acted in Kushi (2001) directed by S. J. Surya.

After the release of Kushi, Pawan Kalyan took a long gap of two years in his film career. He went to Japan for a brief period to learn a martial art called Aikido. He learnt this stunt to use in his first directorial venture Johnny. His next releases were Gudumba Shankar, Balu ABCDEFG, Bangaram and Annavaram

In 2008, Jalsa directed by Trivikram Srinivas released. His subsequent release Puli arrived on 10 September. The audio sales reached a total of 1.6 lakhs of CDs in the first three days, which is an all-time record in Telugu film history.^{[22][relevant? – discuss]}

Pawan Kalyan first release of 2011 was Theenmaar directed by Jayanth C. Paranjee in which he portrayed the two contrasting characters of present and yesteryear generations. Following this, Pawan Kalyan appeared in a Vishnuvardhan's gangster film Panjaa.This film is now set to release in Tamil.^[23] In September 2011, Pawan began shooting for the movie Gabbar Singh. The movie is being directed by Harish Shankar and produced by Bandla Ganesh. The movie is a remake of the Hindi film Dabangg.^[24] In 2012, Pawan is slated to work in Puri Jagannadh's Cameraman Ganga Tho Rambabu. The film is being produced by D. V. V. Danayya and filming is set to begin in May 2012.^{[25] [26]}

A social networking community on his name in the popular social networking website orkut is the second most active community in india. After orkut 'India' community, orkut 'Power Star Pawan Kalyan' community takes second place in Top 10 orkut National communities.^[27][28]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Action Choreographer[link]

Playback singing[link]

Choreography/Songs Visualization[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pawan Kalyan at the Internet Movie Database