Srisaila 'Sikharam' of dreams Hyderabad : When in Srisailam, many devotees and tourists visit the 'Sikharam', which is the highest peak of the Srisailam hills and offers a bird's eye view of the temple and its surrounding areas.
It is believed that if you can spot the 'trishulam' located on the top of the Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy temple's 'gopuram', you attain 'moksham', a transcendent state attained by being relieved from the cycle of rebirth.
But just a few meters away from this Sikharam lays another sanctified spot, where devotees make a stone tower by placing one stone on another place and believe that when they do this, their wishes will come true.
Though mostly devotees follow this ritual in the hope of building and owning a house of their own, an official for the Sikhareshwara Swamy temple said that any wishes one made would come true if the ritual is carried out sincerely and with good intentions.
In this spot, there are literally thousands of small stone pyramids, placed by hopeful devotees and fanciful tourists. With high aspirations or maybe an urge to own palatial houses, towers made from rocks almost the size of boulders can also be observed.
An official for Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation said that this ritual has been followed since a long time. 'There is reason to believe that this ritual may have been followed even during the Satavahana Dynasty period, who ruled from 230 BC to 220 AD.
Evidence of this ritual is definitely visible during the Chalukya Dynasty, who ruled between the sixth and twelfth centuries,' said the official.
The official explained that if the devotees' wish comes true after making the tower of stones, they would come back to the Sikharam and take the darshanam of the Sikhareshwara Swamy once again to thank Him.
While many devotees and tourists are aware of many locations like the Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy temple, Srisailam Dam, rope way to Patalaganga and Sikharam itself, this interesting ritualistic place is little known and rarely finds itself in the spotlight.
News Posted: 20 October, 2014
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