Temple, fort that talk of Telangana culture

Hyderabad: You could travel to Maheshwaram either by the ORR and get off at the Tukkuguda junction, or travel through the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and turn into the Srisailam Highway. On this road, just three-km after Tukkuguda, on your right is a temple arch announcing the presence of a Shivalayam.

After that it’s a drive of about six-km till you reach the entrance of the town. With the temple property jutting out on one side and a masjid on the other, this has to be the narrowest entrance into any town.

The Maheshwaram temple is about 50 km from Hyderabad and is en route to Srisailam. The Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji is said to have spent a few days here and worshipped at the Shiva temple before proceeding to Srisailam.

The Sri Sri Sri Shivaganga Rajeshwari Rajarajeshwara Swamy Temple, painted a pristine white, stands with its rear entrance facing the town.

Enquiries about the Gadikota Fort point one in the direction of a wall with temple markings on it and with no hill in sight. This is unusual for a fort which is usually constructed on an elevation so as to command a clear view of the surroundings. Yet, it was an important fort, garrisoned by troops who were permanently stationed here 300 years ago.

It’s a large fort with a big open space for movement of soldiers and stables for horses.  The Gadikota Fort is also known as the Akkanna Serai. Akkanna and Madanna were two brothers who lived in the 17th century. They were army chief and prime minister respectively, in the service of the Sultan of Golconda, Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. It is said that the kingdom greatly prospered under their guidance.

The fort has a large arched gateway, minus the gates now, but it must have been a huge gate then. As you enter through the arched gateway, there are two traditional room-like structures and in front another smaller, now broken, arch. Behind that is a huge structure with several pillars, while the neighbouring hall also has several pillars.

One of the walls has the typical Kakatiya floral design pattern. Senior army personnel could have been housed here.

There are gates on all four sides. One of them leads to rooms on one side of the walled fort.

The front of the fort is lined with little shops. An old lady running one of the shops says that this place was called Maisamma Kota, where the mother goddess was the guardian of the fort. The small temple of Maisamma has now been shifted on top of the new ramparts, and she lives there amidst tiles.

Apparently, the bonalu here is worth watching and the marriage of the Lord and the Goddess is held at the mandapam right at the front of the entrance.

A number of historical structures and temples were built under Akkanna and Madanna. They were powerful and they used their power to preserve the culture of Telangana.

But they could not stop the invasion of the Moghuls because by then both brothers had been murdered.

Shah Alam, the son of Aurangzeb, came close to Hyderabad and razed the huge Shiva temple which Akkanna had built at Maheshwaram. Remnants of the temple survived and in recent times, the people of Maheshwaram and the temple trustees have begun to refurbish the temple, which is now attracting many visitors.

They say that the village got its name after the Lord Shiva Temple, Maheshwarm meaning Maha Eashwara. But the Moghuls had destroyed the temple.

What is different about this temple is the way it is built. The temple is on the pushkarni, called as the Shivaganga. It has steps on all four sides for the devotees to climb down and have a dip, considered as very auspicious and purifying.

The main sanctum and the 16 other Shiva temples around the main temple has taken close to 20 years to repair, says the main Archaka Sri Veeresham Panthulu. He has been here for the past 22 years and knows a lot about this temple. According to him, this temple is said to have been constructed by King Ganapathi Deva of the Kakatiya dynasty. But after the invasion, the temple was left to its own fate.

The Shivalinga seen here is not the original one, but is a naturally formed one from the River Narmada. The sanctum sanctorum has doors on all four sides.

Just along the boundary of the Pushkarini are 16 small temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and all in the various avatars he is known by. This then is the other charm of this temple.

This is known as the  Shodashanga Roudrikaranam.

In front of the temple is a huge tree, a combination of three trees, peepal, neem and udumbara or cluster fig tree. There is a temple of Naga Raju, the Snake God and there is a belief that a prayer here for childless couples results in positive news for them.

"There is no other such temple across the country," says the Panthulu, adding, "We also do an abhishekam with 108 Dravyala (substances) on Amavasya, Masa Shivarathri and on Arudhra star day." He adds that if a devotee wishes to wash off his past karma, this is the temple he or she should go to and perform abhishekams to all the Shiva LIngas and do other pujas.