Simhachalam Temple
సింహాచలం వరాహ లక్ష్మీ నరసింహ స్వామి ఆలయం
Why this temple matters
On a hill above Visakhapatnam, Simhachalam enshrines Vishnu in the rare combined form of Varaha Narasimha — boar and man-lion together — a deity kept swathed in sandalwood paste all year, revealed in his true form for only a single day.
History
Simhachalam’s inscriptions reach back to the eleventh century, and the temple as it stands was largely built and endowed under the Eastern Ganga kings of Kalinga in the thirteenth century, notably Narasimha Deva I, with gifts recorded from many later dynasties. Its position on a forested hill above the Bay of Bengal coast made it a great regional pilgrimage, and centuries of royal patronage left it richly endowed. The temple blends the Kalinga architecture of the east coast with southern Dravidian elements, a meeting of traditions fitting its border position.
Architecture
The hilltop temple is entered through a pillared complex culminating in the sanctum of Varaha Narasimha. Almost uniquely, the presiding image is kept permanently coated in a thick layer of sandalwood paste, giving it a smooth lingam-like shape, so that the god’s actual form — the boar-faced, lion-clawed deity — is unseen for all but one day of the year. A finely carved sixteen-pillared and a ninety-six-pillared mandapa, a stone chariot, and the shrine of the goddess complete a complex whose Kalinga-style tower rises above the wooded slope.
Legends
Simhachalam’s deity unites the two avatars by which Vishnu saved the boy-devotee Prahlada and his line: Varaha, the boar who lifted the earth, and Narasimha, the man-lion who tore apart the tyrant Hiranyakashipu. Tradition holds that after slaying the demon, the fierce Narasimha was cooled and calmed here, and that Prahlada himself first built the shrine; the perpetual coat of cooling sandal paste is offered, it is said, to soothe the still-fierce god. Only at the Chandanotsavam is the sandal removed and the true form shown.
Festivals
The great festival is Chandanotsavam on Akshaya Tritiya, in the month of Vaisakha, the one day each year when the sandal coating is removed and the god’s true form (nijaroopa darshanam) is revealed to immense crowds before being coated afresh. Narasimha Jayanti and Kalyanotsavam are also kept with grandeur. Through the rest of the year the god is worshipped in his sandal-smooth form, and the fresh, cool fragrance of sandalwood is inseparable from a visit to the hill.
The Experience
The ascent to Simhachalam, by road or steps up the wooded hill, brings cooler air and the scent of sandalwood growing stronger toward the sanctum. Within, the sandal-coated deity is a smooth, gleaming presence rather than a defined figure, and pilgrims prize the smear of sacred sandal paste given as prasadam. On the single day of Chandanotsavam the crowds are vast and the darshan of the true form intensely moving; on ordinary days the hilltop keeps a green, fragrant calm above the busy port city below.