Place · Satyanarayana Vishnu temple · India
Annavaram Satyanarayana
Also known as Annavaram Satyanarayana, East Godavari, Sri Veera Venkata Satyanarayana
The Satyanarayana temple at Annavaram in Kakinada district, Andhra Pradesh, 125 kilometres from Visakhapatnam — the principal kshetra for the Satyanarayana Vratam (worship of Vishnu as the god of truth), performed in Hindu households for marriage, child-birth and auspicious ceremonies. The temple sits on the Ratnagiri Hill 300 metres above the Pampa river valley. The temple's foundation is attributed to Chalukya king Chakravarti Vishnu Vardhana III (c.670 CE); the current structure is 1891 renovation under the Pithapuram Zamindari with major 20-century additions. The temple's distinctive feature is its yantra-shaped sanctum, with the deity Satyanarayana (Vishnu) seated with his consort Anantalakshmi. The temple's Satyanarayana Vratam prasad (semolina halwa) is the standard offering. The annual Kalyanotsavam festival in February draws over 500,000 pilgrims.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 17.287, 82.413
Connections (1)
- Companion in the same setTirupati
Annavaram's Satyanārāyana vratam and Tirupati's darshan are the two mass Vaishnava practices of the Telugu country, and they work oppositely. The vratam needs no temple, no priest and no caste qualification and can be done at home; Tirupati needs the hill, the queue and the hereditary priesthood. The vratam's spread across northern and southern India alike, in Hindi and Telugu versions, makes it one of very few Hindu observances with no regional boundary at all.
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Sources
Wikipedia, “East Godavari district”. The Nālāyira Divya Prabandham and the standard Divya Desam concordances.
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