About SriKalahasti Temple | History | How to Reach | Puja Timing

Srikalahasti temple is a very famous Shiva temple In India located in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. It is one of the most well-known temples in South India. Vayu is incarnated as a Lord Shiva and Worshipped as Kalahastheeswara. This can be seen from the other miraculous feature of Srikalahasti Temple – the Vayu-linga. In the temple, there is a lamp which a wavering flame throughout day and night without any traces of wind to facilitate it’s flickering. This indicates the presence of Lord Vayu.

The Shiva linga is of white color and is said to be self-manifested- Swayambhu. Goddess Parvathi Devi is worshiped as Gnanaprasunambika. This temple is also considered as “Dakshina Kasi and Rahu-Ketu-Kshetra”. The main lingam is not touched even by the priest, even to date it remains untouched. Hence, abhishekam is not offered to the main lingam but the holy mixture of water, milk, sandalwood, flowers, camphor, and other key ingredients are offered to the Utsava murthi.

The Kalahastheswara temple is built on the banks of the river Swarnamukhi. This temple is constructed for worshipping Lord Shiva, for him being the embodiment of one of the five primary elements in the form of water, fire, earth, space, air. Srikalahasti temple is famous for the element air and the other four which are Chidambaram(space), Kanchipuram(Earth), Tiruvanaikkaval(water), and Tiruvannamalai(Fire). This Shiva temple is among some of the very famous and honored religious places of the south. Rahu-Ketu Pooja is very famous in Sri Kalahasti. Rahu-Ketu Pooja will be performed during Rahu Kalam timings.

Srikalahasti is named after the great devotees of Lord Shiva. They were Spider(Sri), The Serpent(Kala), and the Elephant(Hasti). For their pleased devotion, Lord Shiva gave them a boon that their names be merged with the Vayu linga and called as Sri Kalahasteeswara

SriKalahasti Temple History

According to Indian mythology, the temple was named after 3 great devotees of the Lord, the snake, spider, and elephant. The Spider(Sri) his web built a thick web in the form of a temple and the walls of the shrine in order to worship Lord Shiva. The spider protects the deity from external damage by weaving his web and continuously worships Lord Shiva. One-day Lord Shiva tried to test spider and burnt the temple built by its web using lamp. By looking at this spider went to swallow the lamp, in the meantime, Lord Shiva appeared and offered a boon to him. Then the spider wanted to make him without birth. So Lord Shiva agreed to spider and make spider united in him.

The Serpant(Kala) brought precious gems from the underworld and worshipped Shiva every day.

The Elephant(Hasti) used to clean Shiva Linga by carrying water with its trunk and offers Bilva leaves to the Lord Shiva

The elephant throws the gems brought by a snake and places Bilva leaves and flowers on top of Shiva Linga and worships the Lord. The next day snake came and see the flowers, throw them, and worships Lord Shiva by precious gems. This causes war between them. The snake punishes the elephant by entering its trunk and in the process kills itself, while the elephant runs and hits its trunk and head against Shiva Linga. This Incident Leads to the consequences, the frontal part of Shiva Linga is a five-string snake-shaped (Panchamukhi Shakti), the head part of Shiva Linga is in the shape of elephant’s two teeth and the below part of Linga is in the shape of Spider. All these symbolic shapes of Lord Shiva are in the form of “Linga” as a Srikalahastheeswara.

Another legend connected to the glory of the temple. Parvati who was cursed by Lord Shiva to discard her heavenly body and assume the human form. To get rid of the above curse Parvati did a long penance here. Pleased with her deep devotion Lord Shiva again recreated her body a hundred times better than her previous heavenly body and initiated various mantras including the Panchakshari. Consequent to this, Parvati gained fame and came to be known as Shiva-Gnanam Gnana Prasunamba or Gnana Prasunambika Devi.

Sri Kalahasti Temple Timings:

Sri Kalahasti Temple Seva/Pooja Timings

Distance Between Tirupati to Sri Kalahasti:

Distance from Tirupati to Sri Kalahasti is 37kms, 0hr 56mns drive. Distance from Chittoor to Srikalahasti is 105kms, 2hrs 15mns drive. Distance from Chennai to Sri Kalahasti is 116kms, 2hrs 36mns drive. Distance from Bangalore to Sri Kalahasti is 281kms, 6hrs 10mns drive.