Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, Yadadri
శ్రీ లక్ష్మీ నరసింహ స్వామి ఆలయం, యాదాద్రి
Why this temple matters
On the Yadadri hill, Vishnu is worshipped as Lakshmi Narasimha in five forms, at a shrine said to have been won by the sage Yadarshi's penance and reborn in our time as a vast temple of black stone.
History
Yadadri, or Yadagirigutta, crowns a hill in Telangana. Tradition holds that the sage Yadarshi, son of Rishyasringa, did penance here and was granted the vision of Narasimha in five forms; the god stayed on the hill as Lakshmi Narasimha. In recent years the temple has been rebuilt on a grand scale in black Krishna stone.
Architecture
The reborn temple rises in the Dravidian manner in dark stone, with towered gateways and carved halls, gathered around the cave-like sanctum where the five forms of Narasimha are worshipped. The hilltop setting and the black-stone mass give it a stern, ancient grandeur.
Legends
The five forms — Jwala, Yogananda, Gandabherunda, Ugra, and Lakshmi Narasimha — are held to have revealed themselves to Yadarshi in a cave on the hill. Narasimha, the man-lion who tore apart the demon Hiranyakashipu to save the child Prahlada, is here the fierce yet grace-giving lord of the hill.
Festivals
Brahmotsavam and the days of Narasimha, above all Narasimha Jayanti, fill the hill with pilgrims. The temple is also sought for the rites that calm the fierce aspect of the god and heal affliction.
The Experience
Yadadri joins the awe of a hill-shrine of the fierce Narasimha with the freshness of a temple newly raised in stone — a pilgrimage both ancient in spirit and new to the eye.