Draksharamam
Temple Name : Bhimeswar temple
Devi : Manikyamba
Bhairava : -
Organ: Left Cheek
Sanskrit letter: No
How to reach –
Draksharamam is located 28 Km from Kakinada,50 Km from Rajahmundry, 460 km from Hyderabad, 185 km from Vijayawada ..It has bus facility to reach this place. th temple is situated near the bus stop.Nearest Railway stations are Kakinada, Rajahmundry. Samalkot (junction) is one more nearest railway station.
About the place -
The meaning for “Draksharama” is the Abode of Daksha Prajapathi, or Daksha Vatika or Dakshatapovanaas. this place is more important for our shakthi peet journey, I astonished to know that this place is where the yaga party made by daksha. We can see that place where the yaga kunda is. There is a temple which is about half kilometer from bhimeswar temple where the road cuts into a single way road which is surronded by paddy farms and ponds. We can see a temple for sati devi, also named as manickambal. Right side to this temple, we can see a pond where there is a statue in the middle of the pond. A wooden board is placed to reach the statue in the middle of the pond. This place is said to be dhaksa kund and the organ fell down. This is considered as 18 important shakthi peet.
There is no body in that place which is surronded by paddy field and greenish trees. The place is filled with little bit of calm and sorrow, that makes our mind to fill with those feeling. This place is where sati devi falls into yaka fire to sacrifice her body by telling,’ this is really ashame to bear and hold this body giving by you, dhaksa. I will sacrifice this body to this fire’. But the fire didnt touch the devi’s body, but she left that body. The preceeding story is known by you as shiva gone mad because of this incident and carry her body and dance like mad here and there. Vishnu’s sudharsana chakra tourn her body into pieces where shiva went and fall into different parts.
I sat some hours near the pond and return back to the temple nearby, the idol placed here and the idol for manickambal in Bhimeswar mandir is exactly same. The temple is bulilt very recently, before that there is a wreched temple in middle of the pond, still it looks like that like a small motor shed.
There is a place nearby this temple, where a lady told that is samadhi place of some mystic, that telugu lady prounced that is sadhsiva bramendhra, but that is located in nerur near by karur in tamilnadu. It may be of someone.
I returned back to Bhimeswar temple. This temple is one of the “Pancharamas” which is an ancient and holy pagoda and this place is known as dhakshina kashi(South baneares). Moreover this temple is a protected Monument, the Archaeological Department has to undertake the renovation works and have inscriptions and epigraphical details belong to Chola & Sathavahanas to Vijayanagra & Reddy Kingdoms
The temple is well organised and we can see gardens surrounded by the temple. As soon as we entered the temple, we can know the ancientness of this temple. There is outer prahkaram and also there is a inner prahkaram. In the inner most praharam, we can see the linga, which is about ten feet high,made of one large Crystal ,which is 2.6 meters high .I turned my neck to see the peak, but i cant see. The preist told that this is Bogha linga, installed and established by the god, Surya. I climbed to upstaris to see the head of the linga, there are four enternace to see the linga. The speciality of this Shiva Lingam is that, the early morning tender Sun light falls on the Linga. And also there are four entrances to the temple, each facing the four cardinal directions. Every entrance is again covered by a Gopuram. On the upper storey, there is a pillared Pradakshina on three sides, a narrow Antrala and a Garbhagriha. 108 Siva temples built after 800 A.D. around this temple readious of 40 km. Some Purohits have this list. Manikyamba shrine is in right to the main shrine which has a beautiful idol for devi sati of 3 ft in height. There is a seperate shrine for VeeraBhadra,a form of Shiva who destroyed the dhaksa yaga ater sati’s dead.
