OLD COUPLES YATRA TO HOLY HILLS (7)

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OLD COUPLES YATRA TO HOLY HILLS (7)

28-01-2010 – Thursday

After visiting Tallapaka, we proceeded towards Horsley Hills. On the way we had our lunch in Rayachoti. There is only one vegetarian Restaurant near Bus Stand, which is reasonably good. Enjoying the scenic beauty on the way we proceeded towards Horsley Hills. When the destination is about 30 km there are sign boards on either side of the road put up by AP Tourism Department giving Mobile Number of their office in Horsley Hills. We telephoned to the office to enquire about accommodation and the Manager intimated that this is a lean season and accommodation is available without prior reservation. Having assured of accommodation, we slowly proceeded towards Horsley Hills enjoying the journey among hills and forests. We reached the Hills Resort by 5 pm and we had taken a cottage which has two independent suits with attached sit out, a TV. The off season rate is Rs.1200 per cottage. There is a beautiful canteen supplying breakfast, lunch and dinner.

HORSLEY HILLS

Horsley Hills was originally known as Eenugu Mallamma Konda. There is a temple for Eenugu Mallamma and is worshipped as Grama Devatha. W.D.Horsley was the Collector of Cuddapah District and when he visited this place in1840 and was impressed by the beauty of the Hills, constructed a building on the Hills for his summer residence. He laid road to the top of the Hill and developed the Hills as a summer resort. From then onwards, Eenugu Mallamma Konda became popular as HORSLEY HILLS. The narrow ghat road to Horsley Hills is very scenic and is surrounded throughout with dense growth of Eucalyptus, Gulmoar, etc., trees. There is also a beautiful Environmental Park and a lake on the Hills. The Environmental Park is said to have been developed by one Mr. Balijepalli Venkata Subba Rao, Director of Centre for Resource Education. He appears to have developed several such Eco Environmental Parks in Andhra Pradesh in association with the Forest Department, to educate the common man about the importance of saving the environment and encouraging Eco tourism.

After settling in the room, we went around the area in our car. First we went to the Gramadevata Eenugu Mallamma temple and prayed for our happy journey. From there we went to other scenic places such as sunset point, edge of the hill, High view seeing place, Gaalibanda, etc. After spending till 7 pm in a beautiful atmosphere, we retired to the cottage and ordered our dinner to be supplied in the room itself. Witnessing the TV programmes and spending sometime in the open air, we retired for the day.

29th JANUARY, 2010 - FRIDAY

In the morning after leisurely taking breakfast in the canteen, we visited the Lake on the Hills, High view seeing place, Gaalibanda, Environment park, etc. The environmental park is very beautiful and a small zoo is there with peacoks, rabbits, deers, etc. Even at our age, all above 60 years, we climbed the trees and took photos. At one end of the park is the then residential Building of Horsley and there situated the oldest eucalyptus tree of more than 150 years’ old. After taking lunch in the canteen, we went to our cottage and took rest. In the evening also we went around the Horsley Hills, which is a small place, and also visited the sunset point and spent time till 7 pm. Returned to the room and ordered dinner/tiffin and seeing the TV programmes and also a feature film on the computer carried along with us and retired for the day early as my my wife was suffering from throat infection and severe cough after eating the breakfast of puri in APTDC Haritha restaurant in Cuddapah. The Horsley Hills is a very calm place and one can spend three four days leisurely with excellent arrangements for breakfast and lunch and free from air and sound pollutions. The canteen runs throughout the year irrespective of the tourists as the staff members maintaining Horsley Hills are around 100 people and the canteen caters to the needs of the workers also. Some of the permanent workers have quarters and they reside there with their families. We also seen that some of the Big Companies are holding conferences here with a view to provide peaceful picnic like atmosphere to their employees. One such conference has taken place today with about 40 persons attending the same.

30th January, 2010 – Saturday.

We started at 9 am vacating the cottage and settling the Bill and proceeded towards Chittoor. Our aim is to reach Vellore by evening and visit the recently constructed Golden Mahalkshmi Temple and stay for the night there. On the way we proposed to visit the Aragonda Anjaneya Swamy Temple and Kanipakam Vinakaya Temple.

HOLY HILL – ARAGONDA OR ARDHAGIRI.

This punya kshetram has become popular in the recent years, perhaps for the last ten years – on account of development of tourism. There is a Sri Veeranjaneya Swamy Temple on a Hillock known as Aragonda or Ardha Giri meaning half of a Hill. The local legend says that Shri Hanuman when carrying Sanjeevani Parvatam from Himalayas to Lanka of Ravana, to save the life of Lakshmana, who became unconscious being hit by a powerful arrow from Indrajit, a part of the Sanjeevani Parvatam had fallen at this place presently known as Ardha Giri or Ara Gonda, menaing half of a Hill. The locals worship this Hill as part of Sanjeevani Parvatam. There is also a Pushkarini with water throughout the year and said to contain medicinal values and cures many diseases. A tap is arranged from the Pushkarini for the devotees to take and carry water from this pond for intake as the teertham is believed to cure many acute diseases. It is also said by the Devasthanam authorities that many devotees who had cured their diseases such as joint pains, asthama, etc., had recorded their experiences. We leisurely visited the Moola Viraat of Shri Veeranjaneya Swmy and worshipped the Lord with the help of the priest. It is said that the first rays of Sun falls on the moola viraat everyday. We also carried a bottle of water from the Pushkarini and had taken a small sip of the teertham as we were all partly suffering from cough, throat infection and fever, and my wife acutely, from throat infection, cough and slight fever. Our experience is different from the experiences of the devotees recorded.

After worshipping Lord Shri Veeranjaneya Swamy we proceeded to Lord Sri Vinayaka Temple in Kanipakkam which is at a distance of about 16 km from this place.

SRI VARASIDDHI VINAKAYA SWAMY TEMPLE, KANIPAKAM

Kanipakam is a village – at a distance of about 18 km from Chittoor town. The village is famous for the Svayambhu Siddhi Vinayaka Swamy Temple. This temple also became famous in the last twenty years on account of development of tourism. I heard about this punya kshetram when our Chief CIT Shri Radhakrishnan mentioned about this place (in late 1990s) and commented that one should visit this Lord Vinakaya Temple before visiting Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala Tirupati. After his mention we along with our friends (late) Mr.MVS. Sastry, an Advocate, and Mr. Muralidhar, one of my colleagues, visited this temple. Many of the piligrims to Tirumala Tirupati never heard of this temple about 20 years back. Now Kanipakam has become a tourist place for pilgrims along with Tirumala Tirupati.

Local people say that Lord Ganesa here is a very powerful diety and he is popularly known in these parts as Pramanala Devudu. Many of the daytoday disputes among villagers are resolved by taking a special oath – the person taking oath is to take a dip in the pushkarini and affirm his version swearing before the Lord Ganesa and the same is accepted as true and correct. Many a disputes in these parts are solved without going to Courts. A wrong affirmation by any devotee made him suffer severely for his sinful deed and Lord Ganesa ensured that people speak truth before him. The glory of Sri Vara Siddhi Vinayaka Swamy spread far and wide in this disrict and the Honourable Courts also said to have taken cognizance of the ‘special oath’ taken in this temple and recorded in their judicial pronouncements.

It is also believed that the idol size is increasing every year; as a proof, the priests say that the silver kavacham made a few years back is not fitting the idol because of increase in size of the idol over a period of years. The priest said that to his knowledge the Silver Kavacham was changed twice and a larger one used.

Before 12 noon we reached this temple and we found that there was a great rush of pilgrims and long que for the darshan of Lord Siddhi Vinayaka. However, my friend Mr.VK, who earlier had acquaintance with the temple authorities, contacted the temple Inspector and explained about our physical inability to stand in the que, after a long journey from visiting punya kshetras, and the Temple Inspector seeing our plight arranged for Lord’s darshan without standing in the que. After leisurely worshipping the Lord we came out of the temple and had our lunch in a nearby restaurant and proceeded towards Vellore Mahalakshmi Golden Temple via Chittoor. Before reaching Chittoor we contacted our family Doctor Shri Santoshkumar and took his prescription of medicines for our ailments of throat infection, cough and fever. We purchased necessary medicines in Chittoor and proceeded to Shripuram via Vellore and reached this place by 4-30 pm. On this day Shri Rosiah who has taken over as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was visiting this place and there were lot of restrictions for pilgrims reaching Shripuram and visiting the Golden Temple. We found that it is impossible for us to visit the temple and also difficult to approach Devastham Accommodation because of restrictions to reach those places. So, we have settled to take rooms in SRM GUEST HOUSE , a nearby Lodge House, for the day and proposed to visit the Golden Temple, the next day morning. The SRM Guest House has big double rooms with very wide double beds which can accommodate a family of four members. The charges for a day is Rs.900 and considering that four or five people can stay in the room, the charges appeared reasonable. Of course, the rooms in the Devasthanam Guest House may be comparatively cheaper. We have taken two rooms as we decided to stay comfortably because of our physical ailments.

MAIN GATE TO SHRIPURAM MAHALAKSHMI GOLDEN TEMPLE




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RAGHAVARAO U.V.G.V. DUGGIRALA,

HYDERABAD, Dt.7th APRIL, 2011.

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