Kanaka Durga Temple, Indrakeeladri
కనక దుర్గ ఆలయం, ఇంద్రకీలాద్రి
Why this temple matters
On the Indrakeeladri hill above the Krishna at Vijayawada, the Goddess stands as Kanaka Durga, the golden slayer of Mahishasura, self-manifested and ever-awake. Her Dasara is among the greatest Devi festivals of the south.
History
Kanaka Durga crowns the Indrakeeladri hill in the heart of Vijayawada, looking down on the Krishna river as it broadens toward the delta. The Goddess here is held to be swayambhu — self-manifested — and is worshipped as Kanaka Durga, the golden Durga, in her form as Mahishasuramardini, the slayer of the buffalo-demon Mahishasura. One of the most revered Devi shrines of Andhra, it has been sustained and enlarged by the rulers and devotees of the Krishna country across the centuries.
Architecture
The temple sits atop the rocky Indrakeeladri, reached by long flights of steps and a ghat road, in the Dravidian manner of the Telugu country. Within the sanctum the Goddess stands with many arms, bearing her weapons and spearing the demon beneath her lion. Tradition holds that Adi Shankara installed the Sri Chakra here, and the hilltop setting above the river gives the shrine its commanding presence.
Legends
Two legends bind the hill. Here, it is said, Arjuna performed his great penance to Shiva and received the Pashupatastra — the reason the hill is called Indrakeela. And here the Goddess, invoked by the gods, slew Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon whom no man or god could kill, taking her place upon the hill as its ever-watchful guardian. She is worshipped as the victory of the divine feminine over unconquerable evil.
Festivals
Dasara — the nine nights of Navaratri — is the temple's great season, when the Goddess is adorned each day in a different form, from Bala Tripura Sundari to Durga and Mahishasuramardini, and immense crowds climb the hill. The float festival on the Krishna, Sakambari, and the river's Pushkaram draw pilgrims through the year.
The Experience
To climb Indrakeeladri for the darshan of Kanaka Durga, with the Krishna spread out below, is one of the defining pilgrimages of Andhra — most of all in the Dasara nights, when the whole hill is lit and the Goddess is revealed in a new form with each dawn.