Place · Narasimha hill temple · India
Simhāchalam
The Vaishnava hill shrine 25 kilometres north of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, holding Varaha-Narasimha as a single composite deity (the boar and man-lion incarnations of Vishnu combined). The hidden form is covered in sandalwood paste throughout the year and revealed to pilgrims only on Akshaya Tritiya — a few hours each May. The present temple structure is 13th-century Eastern Ganga under Narasimhadeva I, with Krishnadevaraya adding to it after his 1516 Kalinga campaign — his inscription survives in the mandapa. The hill is 244 metres above the dry coastal plain and keeps its own temple elephant and procession traditions.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Narasimha Purānic lore; local sthala purāna
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 17.766, 83.250
Connections (2)
- Companion in the same setAhobilam
Simhāchalam and Ahobilam are the two principal Narasimha landscapes of the Andhra country, one on the coast above Visakhapatnam and one in the Nallamala interior. Simhāchalam keeps its deity's form hidden under sandalwood all but one day a year; Ahobilam scatters nine forms across a forest. Neither shows a single settled image.
- Companion in the same setMarjara Kesari Narasimha, Bargarh
Nrusinghanāth on the Gandhamardhan hills and Simhāchalam above Visakhapatnam are the eastern seaboard's two great Narasimha shrines, and both give him a form found almost nowhere else — a cat-lion who killed a demon mouse in Odisha, a single body of boar and lion in Andhra. Simhāchalam's deity is kept entirely under sandalwood paste and shown in its true form on one day a year, so neither shrine lets a worshipper see a settled image.
On these journeys
Sources
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India — Wikipedia
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