Travel Diaries: Keerthana remembers her trip to Ahobilam

Keerthana Naikal

I visited Ahobilam during the recent Sankranthi vacation. It's a very good place to visit surrounded by mountains and is located in the forest area. 

        Ahobilam is the holy site in the Allagadda Mandal of Kurnool district in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located 70 km from Nandyal and 150 km from Kurnool. There are two temples houses, lower Ahobilam which is commonly known as Chinna Ahobilam and Upper Ahobilam which is commonly known as Pedda Ahobilam. Pedda Ahobilam is the main and very powerful temple. According to the Puranas, this is the temple where Lord Narasimha blessed Prahalada and killed Demon Hiranyakashipu. 

      This place is very popular among the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Lord Narasimha placed himself between the mountains. The mountain formations are the main highlight of this place. Previously, to visit the temple, we have to climb the mountains, But now, to visit  it, steps are constructed instead. There are around 100 steps which we need to climb to reach the temple. It was a very good experience for me in climbing those steps. This temple is surrounded by many monkeys also. The formations of the mountains are very beautiful and attract many tourists. Transportation facilities are excellent to visit the temple from Allagadda.

         The temples of Jwala narasimha swamy, Malola Narasimha swamy, Varaha Narasimha Swamy and six other Narasimha Swamy temples are located in the radius of 

10 km in the thick forest of main temple of upper Ahobilam which I visited after visiting the main temple. These nine temples are called NAVA NARASIMHA TEMPLES. 

I enjoyed a lot in the journey of Ahobilam. It was a very good experience for me. From Allagadda we hired a bus and reached lower Ahobilam. From there we walked around 10 km to reach upper Ahobilam while  enjoying all the beautiful scenery and taking snaps of them. After we reached the temple we climbed around 100 steps to enter the main temple, which was quite a task! Monkeys around the temple snatched our bags and gave them back after taking the food from it which was a tremendous incident. Overall, my trip to Ahobilam was joyful. 

               In my opinion, Ahobilam is a very beautiful place to visit. The temple inside is also very beautiful and the idol of  lord Narasimha Swamy is also very attractive to see. 

                 I feel everyone should try to visit this place and enjoy the nature and view of the temple.