'Thirumangai Alwar',the last of the twelve Vaishnavaite saint poets, has sung in praise of a number of Vishnu shrines in India and in Nepal.Of all the Vishnu temples
he visited,he refers to a particular "divya desam" or shrine as "sendru kandarku ariya koil singavel kundramey"(the most inaccessible among the divya desams is the Ahobila Kshetram). By some good fortune,I had the opportunity to visit this inaccessible shrine and worship Sh Ahobila Narasimhar in his nine different forms popularly known as 'nava narasimhars'.
Ahobila kshetram is referred to as "thiruchingavel kundram" by Thirumangai Alwar. It is situated at about 110 kms away from Cudappa railway station in the Chennai-Mumbai train route in Andhra Pradesh.We,a party of about 32 pilgrims and 7 kitchen staff besides the tour organiser,started from Triplicane on the 23rd January at about 5pm by a tourist bus.After a brief halt at Kakalur Anjaneya swamy temple near Thiruvallur for worship and dinner,we continued our journey through the night passing through Renigunta and other places in AP.We reached Ahobilam (Lower Ahobilam) at 5.30 am and put up at the Ahobilam Mutt guest house.The first visit in the morning was to the Lakshmi Narasimhar temple near the Ahobila Mutt.This is very beautiful with the stone art strucures of the local tradition.This shrine though not a divye desam,is bound to inspire every pilgrim with its tranquility and artistic beauty. After breakfast,we drove by bus into the Reserve Forest area where most of the nine shrines are situated.Our first halt was the the KARANCHA NARASIMHAR,which is about 12 kms from Ahobila Mutt.Karancha refers to a particular tree(Punga maram) under which Lord Narasimha gave Darshan to Hanuman at this point of the hill.We continued our drive for another 2kms to reach the foot of the hill beyond which one has to trek or engage a 'doli' to reach the other shrines in the hill.We visited the first abode in the hill namely the AHOBILA NARASIMHAR SHRINE which is the actual divya desam sung by Thirumangai Alwar and worshipped Lord Prahlatha Varadhar and Lakshmi Narasimhan. The actual trek starts now through steps in some places and through pebbles and stones in other places.VARAHA NARASIMHAR shrine engraved in a huge rock was the next halt on the hill where we worshipped the Lord in the form of a pig to save his bhaktas from evil forces.On the way to Varaha Narasimha swamy sannathy,we come across picturesque mountain sceneries including a breath-taking view of the "Bhavanasini waterfalls".From here the trek becomes treacherous and unkind to the pilgrims who have to exercise utmost care to balance themselves with the stick provided for the purpose while negotiating through boulders,pebbles,streams and steep and narrow steps.
JWALA NARASIMHAR shrine is situated at about 5 kms from Varaha Narasimhar sannathy,on a steep rock with very narrow steps which at one stage you negotiate only by holding on to the chains fixed on the rock surface.This shrine presents Lord Narasimha in his fiercest and most furious form with the flame (jwala) of his fury being directed aginst Hiranya Kashyap,the tormentor of His disciple Prahladha.We saw the Lord in the squatting yoga pose with his finger nails piercing open the guts of Hiranya.One can see the fire in the Lord's furious face.On an adjacent pedestal we could see the Lord chasing a frightened and fleeing Hiranya.Thirumangai Alwar says that Brahma and Maheswara found that the whole horizon was turned fiery red with the fury of the Lord during the annihilation of Hiranya .(Theytha theeyal vin sivakkum singavel kundramay!)
After worshipping Jwala narasimhar we continued with the trek through the tortuous terrain to climb another 2 kms into the forest and rocks to reach the MALOLA NARASIMHAR shrine where we performed 'thirumanjanam'and 'thiruvaradhanam' to the Lord.We came to know that the 'uthsava moorthi' of Malola narasimhar is with the Ahobila Mutt Jeer Azhagiyasinger for his daily thiruvaradhanam as per the Lord's desire.It was heartening to note that even at such an inaccessible place like the Malola narasimhar sannadhi, the Ahobila Mutt has made arrangements for drinking water and toilet facilities.Though Jwala and Malola are toughest to reach among other shrines,we heard of a certain "Ugrasthambam"on top of a very steep rock where a pillar from which the Lord emerged is still there.But reaching this spot was just unthinkable because of the inaccessible terrain! It is therefore no wonder that Thirumangai Alwar refers to Ahobilam as " accessible to no one other than Gods"( Dheiyvamallal sellavonnatha singavel kundramey.) !
We proceeded then to the next shrine namely CHATRAVADA NARASIMHAR which is at about 20 kms back into lower Ahobilam outside the Reserve Forest Area. And from here we continued our drive to YOGANANDA NARASIMHAR shrine which is nearby on the way back to Lower Ahobilam. There are two shrines here namely the "Bala yogananda Narasimhar" and the "Yogananda Narasimhar" sannathies. After completing our worship at the seventh shrine for the day,we returned to the guest house for a well-deserved rest and recuperation.
On the next day our first destination was the PAVANA NARASIMHAR shrine which is situated deep inside the Reserve Forest Area accessible only by jeep through a back-breaking, rough ride through the virgin jungle.The legend has it that Mahalakshmi thayar took birth in this hill as a huntress by name "Chenchu Lakshmi" and the Lord took the form of a hunter to marry Chenchu lakshmi. At this shrine the Lord poses as a hunter with the bow and arrows and other paraphernalia.Even today,the uthsavam in this shrine is performed as per the hunter-family traditions with animal sacrifice etc. Returning from Pavana Narasimhar shrine,we drove again through a similar jungle terrain to climb about 130 steps to reach BHARGAVA NARASIMHAR shrine on top of a small hillock inside the reserve forest. This shrine is dedicated to the sun-god.In fact all the nine Narasimhas correspond to the nine planets of the solar system,it is believed.Thus ended our quest to worship the nine narasimhas of the Ahobila Kshetram,aptly described as 'inaccessible' (Sendru kandarkariya koil singavel kundramey) by Thirumangai Alwar.
To cap all our efforts,the next day we had the good fortune of worshipping the uthsava moorthies of Narasimhas during their visit to a nearby village on a uthsavam,thus concuding our mission. We then had a long drive to Manthralayam on the banks of River Thunga Bhadra, visiting 'Mahanandi temple' on the way.The next day was 'thursday', very auspicious day to 'Raghavendra Swamy'. We had a holy bath in the river Thunga Bhadra and worshipped Lord Raghavendra Swamy.River Thunga Bhadra was almost dry with only some pockets of water found here and there that too not what you can call 'clean' but that doesn't matter before one's faith.Our worsip at Manthralayam was indeed a fitting finale to our 3-day pilgrimage and our endeavour to "access the inaccessible".
"Shrimathe Ramanujaya Namaha."C:\Users\thambu\Pictures\Ahobilam Yathra Jan 2012\DSC06328.JPG
