Hyderabad: A young girl was playing around the village when she spotted some colourful bangles. She immediately went to the seller and asked for some bangles. She told him, she had no money, but he could come to this particular house and get paid. She wore the bangles and vanished.
The next day the bangle seller came knocking at the door of a humble man, a priest, and asked for the money. The man argued that he had no daughter but he suddenly thought of the idol inside. When they both went in and checked, there she was standing, her arms full of colourful bangles.
The bangle seller was so impressed that he immediately got a pair of gold bangles made, which apparently Godamma still wears.
Idols of Lord Ranganatha
“People offer bangles as prasadam after their wish is fulfilled,” says Mr Tiruvadandam Porethi Lakshmana Charyulu, the main archaka and the sixth generation of the family which has been looking after the Sri Godha Sametha Mannaru Ranganayaka Swamy temple.
“This ancient temple for Andal was built by our ancestors. Appalacharya Appana Iyengar built this temple around 600 years ago,” he says. A powerful deity, people come here with wishes.
Goddess Andalamma
“This temple was built much before the Moghuls came to India, Though there is no proof, this is a 13th century temple,” says Mr Tiruvadandam Porethi Govindarajulu, the seventh generation of the family.
Working as a branch manager at Akshara Advertising has not diminished his devotion to the temple and the Goddess. “I do not know if the next generation will be interested in doing pujas and looking after this ancient temple,” he says.
“Only Emperor Aurangzeb must have been against Hindu temples, because here at Edulabad when we have rathothsavams Muslims vie with each other to pull the chariot through the village,” he said.
The temple is located in Edulabad village, Ghatkesar mandal, off the Warangal highway and sits quietly near a lake, near several educational institutions. The Lakshminarayana lake is replenished with water from the Erumela vagu. About 2,000 acres of land are cultivated with the water.
There are only two Andalamma temples in India. While the most well known is at Srivilliputhur in Tamil Nadu, the other one is at Edulabad, also recognised as the Uttara Srivilliputhur.
While Andalamma is Swa-yambhu, Sri Ranganathar Swamy, normally found in a recumbent position, stands here with a limp and with some support for his elbow.
A cute tale has it that Lord Ranganatha was equally keen on meeting Aa-ndal and marrying her and was rushing his vahana, Garuda, to move faster. Even as they were approaching the place, Lord Rang-anatha could not contain himself and jumped off Garuda. Thus he has a limp and must have broken his elbow because he stands with a support. According to the Vishnupurana, Vishnuchitta, a temple priest, found a baby girl near his tulasi vanam and he decided to raise her. They called her Kodhai, and she grew up in an atmosphere of love and devotion to Lord Vishnu. As she grew up, she decided to wed the Lord and no one else and continued to be lost in this dream.
One day instead of placing the garland around the Lord’s neck, she wore it herself, ar-guing that she would of-fer the garland to the Lord only if it suited her. Her father chided her and told her never to do it but the Lord, having his own ways, came in Vish-nuchitta’s dream and told him not to reject Kodhai’s garland offering because he had accepted it. It was then that Vishnuchitta realised that there was divine love in Kodhai for the Lord and even the devotees visiting the temple accepted her behaviour and started calling her ‘Andal’.
She grew up to be a beautiful young girl and her father started the hunt for a groom, but Kodhai insisted she would only marry the Lord, which perplexed her father no end. Once again, the Lord came in Vishnuchitta’s dream and told him he would marry Andal at Srirangam and proceeded to make arrangements for the celestial wedding. Once Andal reached Sriran-gam, her joy was such that she rushed into the sanctum and merged with Lord Ranga-natha. Srinivasa Desika Chary and his family happened to come to the temple for a visit. Desika Chary died and after that his wife Alivelamma and her son Appala Desika Chary decided to settle down at the temple. When a sage came visiting them, he suggested that they construct a temple and gave ‘Manthropadesam’ to the mother and son.
This place was also known as Garudadri because Garuda Pakshis were being tended here. Before settling down here to build a temple, Alivelamma and her son went to the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple at Srivilliputhur for darshan. Here Appala Desika Chary had a dream of Goda Devi, asking him to take her to Rayapuram.
The next day, they found an idol in a golden cradle which resembled Goda Devi. They brought the idol to Rayapuram and constructed a small structure amidst a thick forest, with wild animals roaming around. They built the temple and Goda Devi went on to give it shakti.
While all festivals are celebrated with equal fervour, the main festivals are the Brah-motsavam and Goda Devi Kalyanam during the Sravana masam in August.
