My visit to Ahobilam divya desam

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

I am a new member to this group and wish to post my

experience of visiting Ahobilam divya desam in Oct 07.

 

Trust this would be of interest to all the members.

 

Regards,

S. Srinivasan

 

• Oct 2007 Ahobilam – Singavel kundram – Andhra

Pradesh

 

We boarded the Mumbai – Chennai Super fast express at

Mumbai on 5th October, 2007 at 8:30 pm and reached

Cuddapah Railway station at 2:30 pm the next day (6th

October, 2007). We took an auto to Cuddapah main bus

stand (please note, this distance is very short and

therefore could pay about Rs40/= for auto). We

enquired about the possibility of reaching by bus to

Ahobilam and as we did not get proper direction at the

bus stand, we decided to proceed to the nearby taxi

stand. We were able to get a taxi at about Rs.900/=

(non ac) post some bargaining. We had our lunch

enroute at one of the restaurants at Cuddapah and then

proceeded to Ahobilam which is about 160Kms from

cuddapah. We reached Ahobilam at about 6:00pm.

 

About Ahobilam

Ahobilam is a small village with shops and other

facilities only in the main road of the temple (please

note that there are no other facilities in this

village except those present in the main road of the

temple). Lodging facilities and provided only by

Ahobila mutt (Malola guest house) and Andhra Pradesh

tourism (APTC) guest house. The lodging facilities at

both these places are limited and there are no other

lodges at this place. It is therefore advisable to

have a confirmed booking for lodging before proceeding

to Ahobilam.

Ahobilam can be bifurcated into Upper and Lower

Ahobilam which are distanced by about 9Kms. The main

divya desam is situated in Upper Ahobilam. One has to

use Lower Ahobilam as the base camp as there are no

accommodation facilities at Upper Ahobilam.

The contact at Lower Ahobilam is Mr. VLN Ramanujam

(Lower Ahobilam temple) 08519 252025.

 

At Ahobilam there are 10 temples to visit. The nava

Narasimhars which are swayambus plus a temple in lower

Ahobilam called Prahalada Varadan Kovil.

 

The details of the nava Narasimhars are as under:

Nava Narasimhar Location Lord of

Ahobila Narasimhar (main divya desam temple) Upper

Ahobilam Guru

Pavana Narasimhar Upper Ahobilam Bhudan

Jwala Narasimhar Upper Ahobilam Chevvai

Malola Narasimhar Upper Ahobilam Sukran

Kroda Narasimhar Upper Ahobilam Rahu

Karanja Narasimhar Upper Ahobilam Chandran

Bhargava Narasimhar Lower Ahobilam Sooriyan

Yogananda narashimhar Lower Ahobilam Sani

Chatravata Narasimhar Lower Ahobilam Khedu

 

Of the above 9 temples ahobila Narasimhar temple

represents the singavel kundram divya desam. Apart

from these 9 temples, there is a prahalada varadan

temple in lower Ahobilam which is a grand temple

though not forming part of the Nava Narasimhar

temples.

 

 

Our plan on 6th October, 2007

We reached Malola guest house run by Ahobila Mutt by

6:00pm and due to non availability of room bookings we

checked in at the Andhra Pradesh Guest house (APTC)

right behind (we were lucky to get accommodation there

even though it was a weekend).

 

Room charges:1)Room charges at the Mutt is Rs 250 per

day

2)Room charges at AP guesthouse is Rs 500 per day.

 

Both these places are very close to the prahalada

varadan temple.

 

We had some light refreshments, took bath and reached

Malola guest house to plan our temple visit at

Ahobilam. We were introduced to Mr. Venkat (a guide)

who would help us visit all the 10 temples for a fee

of Rs. 350/=. (These rates are negotiable)

 

We were informed that the 3 temples forming part of

the nava Narasimhar temples close daily at about 5:30

pm and the only temple that we could visit on that day

would be the prahalada varadan temple at Lower

Ahobilam. We went to prahalada varadan temple and had

a good darshan of Sri Lakshmi Narasimhar & Taayaar

Sannidhi and returned to Malola guest house to find

out about the dinner facility. The mutt in charge told

us that there were no restaurant facility in lower

Ahobilam and asked us to wait for sometime while the

mutt cook would prepare upma for us for dinner. Please

note that whoever wants to have lunch / dinner at

lower Ahobilam need to inform the mutt in advance so

that the same can be prepared for them. We had light

dinner and went back to the APTC guest house.

 

Our plan on 7th October, 2007 (Sunday)

The earlier day we had visited 1 out of the 10 temples

of Ahobilam. The balance 9 temples (nava Narasimhars)

can ideally be visited in 2 days, however we were hard

pressed on time and covered the same on a single day

by the grace of god!

 

Our guide venkat came in by 5:30 a.m and we left for

Upper Ahobilam by auto at 6:00am (fare Rs. 100/=).

 

• On reaching upper Ahobilam we climbed about a

thousand steps and trekked about 7 kms to reach Pavana

Narasimhar at about 7:30am. We had a good darshan and

spent about half an hour at the temple and then

returned to the base camp at Upper Ahobilam.

• We then visited the main divya desam i.e. Ahobila

Narasimhar, had a good darshan of the”shanta Murthy”

and proceeded for breakfast.

• We then trekked about 2 Kms and climbed about 300

steps to reach the temple of Jwala Narasimhar, which

is an extremely steep climb. We took darshan of lord

as also the rakta kundam nearby and proceeded towards

our next destination. Please note that one would have

to trek another 1 hour to reach the Ugra stambham from

Jwala Narasimhar temple. Ugra stambham is the highest

point of the Ahobilam mountain range and does not have

any steps leading to the same. One has to trek on the

mountain terrain to reach the same.

• We then trekked towards Malola Narasimhar temple

took about half an hour to reach. Took darshan and

then left for Prahalada’s school (an additional place

of interest)

• We then started climbing down the mountain range and

visited Kroda (or) Varaha Narasimhar temple. Post

having darshan over here, we proceeded to the base

camp at Upper Ahobilam and had Lunch at a Brahmin

Chattram. One has to inform in the morning itself at

this Chatram if they wish to have lunch at this place.

Please note that this is the only facility available

at Upper Ahobilam.

• Post our lunch we walked to the Karanja Narasimhar

temple at Upper Ahobilam had darshan and then took an

auto from there to lower Ahobilam.

 

By the time we reached Lower Ahobilam it was about

2:30 pm and we decided to take rest for half an hour.

We then had light refreshment and started at 3:00pm to

visit the other 3 temples of the nava Narasimhar

temples.

• We took an auto and visited Chatravata Narasimhar

temple had darshan over there and then proceeded to

Yogananda Narasimhar temple and had darshan over there

too. Both these places fall in the same direction and

are about 2kms away from each other. We then returned

to the base camp at lower Ahobilam.

• We then trekked to the Bhargava Narasimhar temple as

auto do not go upto this temple as it is located in

the heart of a forest. It would take about half an

hour to reach this temple from lower Ahobilam by foot.

We could reach the temple before it closed for the

evening (at about 5:00pm) and had a good darshan over

there.

 

We reached back the guest house at about 6:00pm. By

now we were extremely tired of having climbed and

trekked the entire day but were extremely satisfied

that by god’s grace we could see all the nava

Narasimhar sannidhis. We took a break for an hour and

again went to the Prahalada varadan temple at Lower

Ahobilam and spent about an hour over there and had

dinner at Malola guest house and returned to our room.

 

The next day ie 8th October, 2007 we thought of

exploring our way back to Cuddapah by bus. From Lower

Ahobilam we took an auto to a place called Allegedda

which is about 20Kms and fare of Rs.150/=. At

Allegedda we found that there are super fast buses to

Cuddapah every 15 minutes. These are buses plying

between Nandiyal and Tirupati. We could comfortably

travel in the bus and reached Cuddapah on time so as

to take our train back to Mumbai.

 

On the whole it was a divine experience that we had in

this trip.

 

I would be more than happy to provide any further

information that one may need for their Ahobilam visit

plan

 

S. Srinivasan

 

 

 

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