I’ve loved Kaadu Malleswara since childhood, not the least because he grants my prayers or aligns my prayers to his plans for me! It takes a lot of determination to get my prayer in before I start asking for precisely what he decides I should ask for! Kaadu means forest. At one time Malleswaram was a forest .. now its hep and a half.! But lots of awesome temples!
It is a swayambhu linga. That means it was not sculpted and consecrated.. so its even more magical. It came into being by itself, people recognised it as a SivaLinga and started worshipping it.
The prakaras (temple surroundings) are at least five hundred years old and little improvements are being made all the time. The prakaras are always bulit later by a devout king, philanthropist or sometimes with people collecting money and doing it together.
When we were young once I stood with my grandparents in the long line on sivaratri for darsanam. Now I don’t even try. Today was a busy day for some reason.. Thursday was dakshina murthy pooja so there was a crowd there. But there were a lot of people even at the other places thought not as much as on karthika somavaram.
2011-05-05 18.18.36 : Kaadu Malleswara Swamy : Photo Credit : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved
2011-05-05 18.22.29 : Bhramaramba : Photo Credit : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved
I also bought some CDs by Challakere brothers (Their chanting style is traditional and authentic) and some other books at the Malleswaram Vedantha Book House.. but they had very few books as compared to their main store or even compared to themselves sometime back.. There was Aurobindo’s Bhagavad Gita – translation and commentary,, which I did not get coz I was over budget.. but may be some other time!
I also had the opportunity to help an elderly lady cross the road afterwards and she gave me a well-done look. And naturally I think it must have been Devi herself!
Photography, Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
