Troves to make Simhachalam temple richest

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, April 22, 2013: Historians strongly believe that Simhachalam temple, 22kms away from city, which is known as the second richest temple in India, after Tirumala hill shrine, may just graduate to first place if the hidden treasure troves on its premises are excavated.  Lakhs of devotees from across the state and neighbouring
Odisha and West Bengal throng the temple daily.

Fearing attacks from Maratha and Muslim kings during 18th century, those who were taking care of the temple have hid the treasures underground on the temple premises. Simhachalam is one of the eighteen Naarasimha Kshetras-shrines of Lord Narsimha in India and was patronized by the rich dynasties of Eastern Gangas, Gajapathis and Reddys who ruled eastern and southern parts of the country from Nellore to Bengal from 11th to 17th century BC.

With the unique feature of the temple being west faced- a sign of victory, all the
emperors who ruled eastern India used to frequent the temple and offer valuable gold
ornaments, gems and silver articles which has distinctive antique value besides loads of
monetary value.

“All the dynasties those ruled eastern India and parts of Andhra Pradesh used to believe
in Lord Narasimha and patronize Simhachalam temple. They offered many valuables which were listed in an inscription that has to be excavated. Out of the 600 inscriptions very few were found and in one of them belonging to 11th century it was said that gold
ornaments, gems in large numbers that can’t be valued were offered to the presiding deity by many emperors and they were listed in one of the inscriptions,” Prof Kolluru
Suryanarayana of department of history at Andhra University told this correspondent.

Except the offering by Emperor Sri Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagar Empire, an emerald
necklace and recent gold offerings by devotees no antique valued ornaments are known to the public.

Sri Krishnadevaraya after defeating the Gajapathi ruler of Odisha, Gajapati Prataparudra
Dev visited the shrine twice in 1516 AD and 1519 AD and offered numerous villages for
maintenance of bhogam (worship) along with valuable jewellery of which an emerald
necklace is still in the temple.

Prof Suryanarayana added that kings of eastern India used to patronize Simhachalam temple more than lord Jagannath temple in Puri and sun god temple in Konark as the Lord Narasimha’s temple is ancient than the latter two temples and also due to the unique feature of the temple being west faced- a sign of victory.

It is believed that there was a cave under the mandapam on the temple premises near
sanctum sanctorum where the valuables are deposited over thousands of years ago.
“In 1979 when the present Gali Gopuram was being constructed we have seen many walls and structures beneath the site. Had the authorities allowed us, a group of historians and archeologists, who were keen to excavate further, we would have found many
valuable things and information. But the temple authorities at that time were busy
completing the construction and didn’t allow us,” added Suryanarayana.

The treasure trove argument can be corroborated from the findings of senior temple
science expert TP Sri Ramachandra Charyulu who has decoded about 500 ancient inscriptions from the Simhachalam temple in 2008. According to his findings the Simhachalam temple used to receive generous donations from kings and ordinary pilgrims from all over south
India.

Gold coins offered during 1264 and 1266 by a ruler from Cuttack in Odisha were also
found. The coins and related inscriptions showed that the king had made permanent
financial arrangement to meet the salaries of 100 temple danseuses and musicians. No
temple even now days have such a large contingent of musicians, which is very rare.