Sri Bhimeswara Swamy Temple - Draksharamam

Draksharamam is one of the five Pancharama Kshetras. It is in Draksharamam town of the newly formed Konaseema district of Andhra Pradesh State.

Here the Presiding deity is Lord Bhimeswara Swamy. The Shiva lingam is made up of a large crystal of 2.6 meters high.

Manikyamba Devi is the consort of Lord Bhimeswara Swamy.

It is one of the 18 Shaktipeeta temples.

Here four gates have four goddess temples.

Sati Devi’s left cheek had fallen here and the temple

This temple was built during the 9^th – 10^th centuries.

The temple is huge, constructed in an area of 12 acres surrounded by huge walls.

This temple was constructed in the South Indian style of architecture. This temple has 5 tier Rajagopuram.

The Pushkarini is called Sapta Godavari where sapta rishis brought water from seven different rivers to create it.

A few temples are on the premises like Kala Bhairava, Veera Bhadra, and Vatuka Bhairava temple.

The temple is huge, constructed in an area of 12 acres surrounded by huge walls.  Dundi Ganapati and Natya (Dancing) Ganapati welcomed us at the main entrance. Lord Brahma installed by Krishna Devaraya exists here and there are halls for Navagraha and Ashta Dikpalakas. The outer prakaram is pierced with four entrances each with a gopuram. The gopuram on the west is a five-tiered one. The entrance to the inner prakaram is on the south. A pillared two-storeyed verandah lines the inner prakaram (tiruchutrumaaligai in the ancient temples of Tamilnadu) The sanctum is two-storeyed and the walls surrounding both levels are beautified with sculptural work. Two flights of stairs lead to the upper level of the sanctum.

Daksha Prajapathi (father of goddess Parvathi) performs a yagna without calling his daughter Parvathi and Shiva. Parvathi attends the function, but she gets ill-treated. She jumps into the fire without tolerating the insult, which leads Lord Shiva to create Lord Veerabhadra with his hair to destroy the yagna. After the destruction, Lord Shiva did rudra tandava carrying his wife’s dead body in anger. Lord Vishnu used his Sudarshan to cut Sathi Devi’s dead body into 18 pieces to make Lord Shiva peaceful. The places where the body pieces of Sathi Devi had fallen are called Shakthi Peetams (holy places of Goddess), one among them is Draksharamam and the goddess here is named Manikyamba. Later the name Daksha Vatika was changed to Draksharmam.

Maha Shivaratri and Dasara are the festivals celebrated here.

Temple Timings

5.30 am to 12 noon

3.00 pm to 8.30 pm

How to reach here

25 km Amalapuram

28 km Kakinada

50 km Rajahmundry

Nearby Temples

Ainavilli, Sri Vigneswara Swamy Temple – 18 km

Gollala Mamidada, Sri Konda Rama Swamy Temple – 20 km

Puttakonda, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple – 20 km

Biccavolu, Sri Golineswara Swamy Temple – 29 km

Palivela, Sri Uma Koppu Lingeswara Swamy Temple – 34 km

Appanapalli, Sri Bala Balaji Swamy Temple – 39 km

Rajahmundry, Sri Uma Marakandeswara Swamy Temple – 45 km

Peddapuram, Sri Suryanarayana Swamy Temple – 46 km

Pithapuram, Sri Kukkuteswara Swamy Temple – 46 km

Kadali, Sri Kapoteswara Swamy Temple – 47 km

Korukonda, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple – 61 km

Antharvedi, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple -73 km.