Famous Temples in India

Religious Significance

One of the most Ancient temple present in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. During the end of the 16th century Rama Bhadhra Raju and Raghupathy raju, the feudatory kings of Vijayanagara Kingdom were ruling from Ongole. These kings were ardent devotees of Lord Venkateswara. Hence they installed an idol of the lord in their fort itself and named the lord as Chennakesava Swamy. They also performed regular poojas and rituals to the lord. Huge number of villagers assembles at the Chennakesava Swamy temple to witness the rituals, ceremonies conducted by the Kings. Since it is a small shrine, most of the villagers do take the darsan of the lord from outside the fort during the ceremonies or the festival celebrations. Since they have enmity with the Kings of Venkatagiri, it becomes troublesome for the Army Minister Raghunayaka in providing required security around the fort, due to the huge crowd assemble there during festivals.

To reduce the security risk, Minister Vankayala Veeranna took this issue to King Raghupathy to find a permanent solution. King Raghupathy's spouse Manjulatha also had in mind about providing regular and convenient Darsan of Lord Chennakesava to the devotees of the villagers at any time. The King keeping both in mind called the Asthana Pandith (Kimg personal astrologer) Vangala Seetharama Avadhani along with other pandiths, and consulted about constructing a seperate temple.

After the discussion of the king with the Pandiths and Vaastu experts, have had come to a conclusion to build the temple on the hill of Ongole. The king invited the required priests from Sri Rangam to commence the poojas in the inaugural ceremony of the Lord Chennakesava Temple, as per the Vaikhanasa Agama Tradition during the year C.E 1712. Then afterwards, the devotees were able to have an easy Darsan of the Lord. Also the hill was name as Kesavadhri.