Ahobilam - Oho Bilam

Situated amidst dense Nallamala Forest, Ahobilam is one of the 108 Divya Desams. Ahobilam is the holy abode of Lord Narasimha, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in man-lion form. Ahobilam is a holy place located near nandyal, kurnool. Lord Lakshmi Narasimha is the holy god over here and main deity. This is the same place where Lord Narasimha killed the demon Hiranyakasipu and saved his disciple Prahalada. Mahalakshmi took the avathar as Chenchu lakshmi ( tribal hunters ) and married the Lord.
 

The Eastern Ghats or nallamala are likened to the great serpent Adhisesha basking in the sun with its head (or hood) at Thirumala, its middle at Ahobilam and its tail- end portion at Srisailam - all the three with famous temples on them. Garuda wished for a vision of Lord Nrisimha in the form of the Avathara. To fulfill his wish, the Lord settled in the hills around Ahobilam in the midst of dense forests in nine different forms. For this reason this hill came to be known as Garudadri, Garudachalam, and Garudasailam. 

It is true that Lord narasimha temples are more in Andhra pradesh. A total of 21 Narasimha temples are available in Andhra pradesh. Of all these 21, Narasimha temple in Simhachalam, Yadagirigutta Narasimha Swamy, Vijayawada Panakala Swamy and lastly Ahobilam narasimha swamy are most famous. It is said that after Killing Hiranyakasipu, Lord was very angry and he went to Vijayawada and stayed as Panakala Swamy ( Here the god is given with Panakam to cool him ), and finally after completely cooling down lord went to yadagiri gutta and stayed as as Yogi Narasimha.
 

The main shrine of ahobilam is situated on the top of the hill and is referred as Upper ahobilam, and down the hill there is another one called Lower ahobilam. The main deity resides on the upper ahobilam. the main deity is carved out of the big egg like rock. The temple has specific timings and after some time in the evening the temple will be closed. The main temple is opened at around 6:30 AM and will remain open until 8:00 PM. The temple will be closed from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. The distance between Upper ahobilam and lower is around 8kms.Besides lower and upper ahobilam there are many other temples.Legend is that after killing Hiranyakasipu lord wondered at 9 places in these hills and hence there are 9 shrines to visit. These are called as nava narashimha temples. Few temples exist at upper ahobilam and few besides lower ahobilam. All of these temples are around 8kms away from the main temple. 

Upper Ahobliam includes the below narasimha temples:
1. Ahobilam Narasimha
2. Kroda Narasimha
3. Jwala Narasimha
4. Malola Narasimha

Lower Ahobliam includes the below narasimha temples:
1. Yogananda Narasimha
2. Chatravata Narasimha
3. Pavana Narasimha.
4. Bhargava Narasimha
5. Karanja Narasimha Temple

On the way to Upper Ahobilam from Lower Ahobilam, we can see the Karanja Narasimha Temple. It would require at least 1 and half day to visit all these temples. We can take a trek to one of the the temple "malola narasimha temple". The trek goes through the forest.Most people may not be able to visit all the temples but when we visit upper ahobilam we can go to the Jwala Narasimha temple which lies above the upper ahobilam. it is a hard trek but once can visit this temple. There is a water fall while going to the jwala narasimha temple which is said that after killing Hiranyakasipu, lord washed his hands in this waterfall and hence people drink this water.
 
As we already discussed, there are 9 shrines of Lord Narasimha temples.

Ugra Narasimha Swamy - This is the main temple of Lord nara simha Swamy. The temple is very small and doesn't seem to have a definite architecture for it. The one good thing over here is everyone can go to the grabha gruha and have darshan. The deity is sat on a 4 feet with pressing Hiranyakasipu head and hands onto his lap. We can see Prahalada statue before the god doing namaskar.

It is also said that while doing aranyavasam , Lord Sri rama and seetha devi performed puja here and praised the god with Panchamruta stothram. Hence we can see Lord rama and seetha deities here.

There is another story around this temple, Sankaracharya did a parakaya pravesha near the temple. While the king's guard taught him to be dead and burned his body. When Sankaracharya returned to his body and came out of the burning fire. His hands burned during this. Sankaracharya then praised the god with karavalamba stotram here and his hands were freed from burns. Sudarshana Chakra was installed behind this temple by adi shankaracharya.

Once after killing the Demon Hiranyakasapa, the god is still angry. All other devatas came here and praised the lord as “aho Bilam”. Aho means great and bilam means strength which means god with great strength. God then cooled off and stayed here. Devi Lakshmi took the form of a tribal beauty,Chenchu Lakshmi, who made the ferocious Narasimha to fall in love with her.Chenchu Lakshmi did tapasya to make Narasimha's anger fade-away. There is a small temple of Chenchu lakshmi behind the main temple in Upper Ahobilam.  

Ugra Stambham ( Piller ) - Above the Jwala Narasimha temple , there is a piller called Ugra Stambham. Legand is that this is the same piller from which lord narasimha came out and killed the daemon. The Piller comes out from the hill and we can only see the top of the piller. The trek to this piller is very hard and only few can make to this place. (check out the small line that you see on the top of the hill which is the piller)


Prahaladha Badi ( School of Prahaladha ) - One the other side of the temple we have a small temple with 3 deities which is called as Prahaladha Badi. This is the same place where prahaladha had his education when his father has sent him to forest.
 

Ahobilam Mutt - Sri Ahobila Mutt, one of the most important Sri Vaishnava religious institutions in India, was established by Sri Athivan Satakopan at the instructions of Lord Lakshmi Nrisimha of Ahobilam. the utsava moorthy of the Malola Narasimha temple, one of the nine shrines of Ahobilam, is the presiding deity of Sri Ahobila Mutham

Ahobilam and Srisailam used to be under the Kakatiya dynasty during the 14th century. Prataparudra was the king during that time who was a devotee of Lord shiva. Every day in the morning, he will get a Shiva linga made of gold from his goldsmith where he donate and then have food and other things. One time he visited srisailam and stayed at Rudravaram village near to ahobilam. The next day when the goldsmith tried to create a shivalinga, it become narasimha statue. The king got to know about this and upon viewing this he left sad. Lord narasimha came into his dream and said that this place belong to him only. He also told that he is residing in a cave which we call as Upper ahobilam. He also told that once the narsimha statue is done, donate it to a guy called “srinivasa charya” who will visit in the morning. The king donated the statue to srinivasa charya, who is the same guy who founded the Ahobilam Mutt.

As he told in dream, the king visited the cave and built mandapam around the cave. He also placed the dwara palaka statues and we can see the image of the king pratapa rudra and his queens performing puja to the god over here.

Bhava Nasini koneru - We can see a koneru on the side of the temple. The water comes from the Jwala narasimha temple above the main temple and moves to the village.

Varaha Narsimha Swamy - Lord Narasimha over here is in the form of Varaha narasimha swamy who saved vedas from a Demon, Somakasurudu. The diety is also called as Kroda Narasimha swamy too. The temple is on the foot of hill called vedadri. It is said that since the vedas are saved here, the hill is called vedadri.

Malola Narasimha Swamy - the temple is around half kilometer from Varaha narasimha swamy temple. The temple is on flat land and can be visited easily. The story around this is that, “once lord narasimha married chenchu lakshmi and stayed here. Mahalakshmi in vaikuntam, looking for Vishnu came here , saw god staying with chechu lakshmi. She left to vedadri hill in anger. Upon god knowing this, he came to vedadri and made lakshmi happy and stayed here. In Malola, ma is lakshmi devi and lola means lover and hence this deity in this place is called malola narasimha swamy.
malola narasimha swamy is also the presiding deity in ahobilam Mutt. Srinivasa charya, once had trouble choosing which narasimha to perform puja every day. Hence he opened his hands and prayed to god. Srinivasa charya can see Molala narasimha swamy figure in his hands, hence he is chosen as good to perform pujas every day.

Jwala Narasimha Swamy - This place where this temple is located is said to be the place where Lord Narasimha killed the demon Hiranyakasipa. The idol in the temple looks furious. Lord Narasimha arrived with furious flames from an Iron Pillar to kill the demon Hiranyakashipu. The idol in the temple looks furious with flames. The idol consists of 8 hands, 2 hands holding the head of the demon on his lap, 2 hands splitting the stomach of the daemon, 2 hands wearing Hiranyakashipu nerves around the lord neck and the last 2 hands holding shankh and chakram. Besides this, another idol representing Lord Narasimha coming out of the pillar and another idol showing Lord holding the demon head in his lap. This is also the starting place for the bhava nashini pond that we see near the main temple. It is said that the lord washed his hands in this waterfall after killing the demon. The water from here moves to the main temples and forms the bhava nashini pond. The waterfall near this temple will be seen in red color from a distance and when close, it sees in normal color.

Pavana Narasimha Swamy - After ugra narasimha swamy temple, this is the next very powerful and most visited temple. In order to reach this temple , we have to do a trek of 14kms in the forest. There is also a road way to this temple where we can go by vehicle. Saint Bharadvaja did a penance here to Lord Narasimha and upon his wish Lord Narasimha along with Lakshmi devi gave darshan to him. The temple is most visited on Saturdays and one who can't reach this temple by morning puja will do a night halt here. The temple is in the forest. Lord Narasimha sits on Adiseshu under his 7 padagas. The lord looks beautiful and happy here.

Karanja Narasimha swamy - This temple is pretty close to the Upper ahobilam and can be seen when going to Upper ahobilam. People used to visit the upper ahobilam first and visit this temple while coming back. Lord Narasimha gave his darshan to a saint gobhiludu under a karanji tree ( a type pee tree ). Hence the god here is called Karanja narasimha swamy. There is another story along with this is that, Lord Narashimha gave darshan to Hanuman but Hanuman says he knows only Rama and no other god. Lord Narasimha then took the form of Lord Rama with a bow. The idol in this temple will be in the form of lord rama and the astonishing thing about this idol is that there is another eye on the forehead of the idol.

Chatravata Narasimha swamy : Of all the idols in the Narasimha temple, the idol in this temple is the biggest one. The temple is located near to the lower ahobilam and one can reach by vehicle. Once upon a time, there are two heavenly beings staying here due to a curse. They did a penance and lord gave them the darsham. Upon seeing the god, both heavenly beings ( gandarvas ) started dancing and singing by praising the lord. Lord, being very happy, sat in padmasana and did thalam on his lap. The idol is seen in the same form where lord narasimha is seen in padmasana with his hands performing a talam.

Yogananda Narasimha Swamy : The lord here is seen in the Yoga pose and it is said that yoga narasimha swamy taught yoga education to Saint Prahlada.

Bhargava Narasimha Swamy : This is the place where lord Narasimha gave darshan to Saint Parashurama. Hence this temple is called as Bhargava Narasimha temple. This is one temple that stays in a deep part and it is around 2kms to the lower ahobilam.

Lower ahobilam aka Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy : This temple is one of the beautiful temples. It is very hard to believe that such a beautiful temple is located in andhra pradesh. It is said that the idol is installed by Lord Venkateswara himself. After getting married to Padmavati , Lord Venkateswara visited the upper ahobilam and installed this statue at the lower ahobilam. There are many beautiful pillers inside this temple. There are separate temples for the lord and ammavaru. Ammavaru here called as “amrutavalli tayaru”.