170. Saripalli, Ramatheertham and Jami Vruksham

March 27, 2021

This blog is on the final 3 places that we visited. The first one is in Saripalli, which has the Dibbi Lingeshwar Swamy (Lord Shiva) temple, constructed between the seventh and tenth century by the Chalukyas. There is only a very mall temple here in a small park. The site is maintained by Archaeological Survey of India and has one person maintaining it.

The temple in a park

The Lingam inside the temple

On one side of the temple

On the other side

Some sculptures that were there in the park

These sculptures look like they might have fallen off the temple.

The next place is Ramatheertham. There is a 1000-year-old Sri Rama temple here. As per the Legends, In Dwaparayuga, when Pandavas exiled from the Kingdom, they prayed to Lord Krishna for support during their Vanavasam. Krishna gave the Idols of Sita, Rama, Lakshmana and had asked Pandavas to worship these deities. As instructed by the Lord, Pandavas used to worship these idols. Pandavas while moving to a different place, they had asked Vaikhasana Priest Vedagarbha to worship these idols. Vedagarbha and clan used to perform Abhishekam, Archana to these deities regularly. During the times of Buddhism, to protect idols from demolition, the Vaikhasana priests dug the pit and covered with the mud.

In 16th Century AD, King Poosapati Sita Ramachandra of Gajapati dynasty made Kumbilampuram (Present Kumili Village) as the capital and started ruling this region. Villagers used to gather wood from the forest nearby for their livelihood. One day, while villagers are gathering wood, it started raining heavily with thunders and villagers took shelters under trees. One aged dumb lady, a devotee of Lord Rama took shelter under a banyan tree. Lord Rama appeared before her and blessed her with the speech by writing Beejaksharam (Alphabets) on her tongue. Lord Rama asked her to recover Dwaparayuga Idols from the nearby pond and disappeared. As instructed by the Lord, the aged lady somehow conveyed the message to the King. King with this staff recovered the idols from the pond. King with his priests installed the Idols on Bhishma Ekadasi day and built the temple on Swetachalam hill. As the Idols were recovered from the pond, this shrine was called by Ramatheertham.

Inside the temple premises, one side

The main deities

The next place is Jami Vruksham. In this tree only, the Pandavas had kept hidden their weapons when they were in exile. The tree fell about a couple of years back. The people who are maintaining it, have gathered the branches and have planted 2 trees. I spoke to the lady of the family. Their forefathers have been maintaining it for a long time. They take care of the place. They don’t allow any non-hindu to enter the temple. The lingam here was installed by the Pandavas. When we reached the placed, it was locked. After enquiring from the neighbours, our driver went to the owners of the temple and brought the landlady. During auspicious days, the temple has visitors. Otherwise, very rarely people come to visit. Every week, they do puja of the lingam with fresh milk.