Somasila Dam – Lifeline of the Penna Delta
Vikramasimhapuri, how cool is the name ! We are, of course, talking about Nellore, as the city is known today. As we normally tend to do with our hometowns, we had taken it for granted all our lives, this time though, we wanted to give it its due and for our year end vacation, we decided to explore tourism in and around Nellore (it is a different story that none of our other plans worked out and Nellore was the only option left !)
Happy journey !
The journey between Hyderabad and Nellore is always a pleasure. There are 3 routes to Nellore, the one via Nagarjuna Sagar is the popular one, it is lot of fun to stop by at Sagar enroute. The 3rd and the longest route is the one via Vijayawada through NH9 and NH5, take this route if you have time and want to visit a few places around Vijayawada. The shortest route is the State Highway 2 route through Nalgonda, Miryalguda, this route had bad roads for several years, now, the roads are super cool ! It has added to joy of driving home ! If you are driving from Hyderabad to Chennai, this is the best route.
There is a lot of excitement when you just start a week long vacation with a long drive and great roads. SH2 is soon becoming a cool place to hangout too, stop at Narketpally for a good breakfast, try the Vivera Hotel, the food is always great. We also discovered a new hotel near Ongole on NH5, they call it Hi5, we liked the creative name, Highway 5 and Hi-fi ! This road didn’t have good options for lunch, there are eating joints coming up in recent times like this one. Good roads means good business too ! Overall, our trip began on a happy note.
Picnicking by an ancient lake
After cooling our heels at home for 2 days, it was time to hit the road. We zeroed in on visiting the Somasila Dam, the main source of irrigation for the Nellore/Penna Delta. Since we started around lunch time, we packed food from home and decided to stop somewhere on the way for lunch. From Nellore, Somasila Dam is around 81 kms, via Podalakur road. We took another route through Buchireddypalem, Sangam and Ananthasagaram Lake.
The road is decent enough for most part of the 80 kms journey, as you reach closer to Somasila, the Eastern Ghats make their appearance. 15 kms before you reach Somasila is Ananthasagaram Lake. The road goes very close to the lake and what a refreshing sight it is !
Ananthasagaram Lake is man made lake dug up sometime in the 16th Century A.D, during the reign of Sri Krishna Deva Raya. The lake served as a means of irrigation and water supply in those days and even 500 years later, it continues to serve the purpose. What does that say about the vision of the kings of yore?
The lake is very picturesque surrounded by hills. We stopped by the road side near a small temple and spread out our picnic lunch under a tree. The cool breeze and the surrounding seemed to enhance the taste of the food !
Just a few meters from where we had our lunch, we spotted a rock pillar on the wayside, decorated with vermilion and flowers. We thought it was some local deity, it was only after returning home did we learn that it was a rock edict from the times of Sri Krishna Deva Raya, when the lake was built ! We regretted not having stopped to take a picture.
An agriculturist’s pilgrimage
We reached Somasila Dam around 3.30 PM. Somasila is a small village on the banks of the Penna River, the Dam was built in the 1980s, today it is the major source of irrigation for agricultural lands in the entire Penna delta. Hailing from a family of agriculturalists, visiting the Somasila Dam was like a pilgrimage, paying our respects to the source of our family’s livelihood !
As we drove close to the dam, we were greeted by the sound of gushing water, one of the 12 dam gates was open. We were surprised to find a gate open in December when most dams are already closed for the year.
When you look at the dam from the front, it looks like half the dam is underground !
To know where the rest of the dam has disappeared, one has to climb up the dam. There are steps leading all the way up, you also get some lovely views of the surrounding hills along the way.
Half way up, you realize that the dam is not covered underground but
gates end in a pool and then there is a massive platform leading to a
wall and then there is a bridge. How the water flows downstream over the
platform seemed a mystery to us ! Water from only gate that was open
flowed into a stream under a bridge, we still haven’t been able to
figure out how the rest of this dam works !
Once you reach the top of the dam, the river is a sight to behold ! The River Penna was shimmering under the 4 PM sun, fisherfolk had just set out in search of their evening catch.
On the other side, the water rushed out from the dam gates, when you look from above, the view is sure to give you a dizzy feeling !
Imagine if all the gates were open !
Penna-Krishna joint venture !
This is probably one of the very few places through the course of the Penna river where you can see the river full to the brim ! The poor river is a seasonal one and dams have been built left, right and center on it, so, by the time the river reaches the plains, there is hardly any water left. We almost had tears of joy to see the river full to the brim at Somasila ! Sometimes it makes us think if building dams is detrimental to the environment and eco-system but then, for agriculture to thrive, we need dams. One of those debates that cannot be resolved.
Vehicles are not allowed onto the dam but you can take a long, pleasant walk, soaking in the scenery around.
The river continues its flow downstream through the hills towards Nellore before it meets the sea at Uttukuru. Full or empty, there is something beautiful about a river meandering its way through the hills.
The sun cast its long evening rays and lit up the river below, as we got down from the dam. See if you can find enough words to describe such scenes, we just couldn’t !
We met a few people who work here and asked them why the dam gates were open in this season. They told us that since the agriculture season was still on in some parts of the Penna delta, water was being released. We also got to know that the water was not entirely from the Penna, it seems a part of the water is also contributed by canals from the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, so technically, the reservoir contained both the Penna and Krishna waters !
Somalingeswara Swamy Temple
The Somasila Dam gets its name from the ancient Somalingeswara Swamy temple located on the banks of the Penna river, very close to the dam. The area around the temple is very quiet, gives you the kind of peace you look for in a temple. At the entrance there is a banyan tree where you can sit and enjoy the bliss of silence.
The temple dates back to the 7th Century A.D, if the internet is to be believed but as it stands today, the entire structure has been rebuilt.
A works of sculpture like these, scattered here and there are the only proofs of that the temple had its date with history.
The temple was closed when we visited it, there were only a few old people who were having their evening “Satsang” at the temple. The Garbhalaya looks like it has sunk into the ground, it is actually lower than the ground level, again a sign of the antiquity of the temple as the ground around has been raised and leveled over the years. If you have the enter the main shrine, you will have to bend down through the entrance.
Since the shrine was closed, we could only peek in through the grill and offer our prayers.
We left the temple and binged on some tasteless ice cream bought from one of the several ice cream carts near the dam. There is a nice park just opposite the temple, AP Tourism has built some shelters here where you can simply hang about and relax with the hills as a backdrop.
The park is decently maintained and as we were appreciating AP Tourism’s work, we met a lady who was in charge of the maintenance. She wanted to borrow our phone to make a call to the contractor of the park because she hadn’t been paid salary for a few months now ! We felt sorry for her, for all her hard work in that remote place, it was sad that she wasn’t getting her due. Wish the government did something to take care of such people and not leave them at the mercy of contractors.
It was past 5 PM when we decided it was time to head back but scenes like these near the bridge forced us to stop and take pictures. There is no railing at the edge of the bridge and you feel like you would fall off if you inch any more closer, the water flow seems to sweep you off your feet !
Despite knowing we were getting late and our camera battery almost giving up, we had to take just that one more picture, you can’t have enough of these views, can you?
Finally, we left Somasila with one last picture of the dam around sun set and just in time before our camera battery shut shop for the day. How would you like sitting here and gaze into eternity?
Somasila is a perfect picnic spot for those visiting/living in Nellore. If you ever visit or plan to visit Nellore, don’t miss this place !
Info tidbits
– It takes close to 2 hours to reach Somasila from Nellore. Buses ply from the city and nearby towns like Podalakur, Buchireddypalem and Sangam.
– It is advisable to carry your own food, there are no hotels nearby except for the ice cream carts.
– There is no way you can stay anywhere here, the nearest accommodation is Nellore city.
– We found an information board talking about a wildlife sanctuary nearby. Also, there is a trekking spot and waterfall some 9 kms away called Panchalingala Kona. We couldn’t go to both the places due to lack of time, that gives us one more reason to visit Somasila again.
– If you take the route via Sangam, visit the ancient Sangam temple, located at the confluence of Penna and one of its tributaries. Also stop by at the Kanigiri Reservoir enroute to Sangam. We didn’t have the time, so gave these two places a miss but then, we’ve been visiting them since childhood, anyway !
– You can spend close to 2 hours at the dam site alone so if you plan to visit all the above places, you will need a whole day, plan your trip accordingly. If you don’t have your vehicle, try to get back by 5 PM, you may find it a little difficult to find buses or autos after dark.
Patur – Weaving an epic !
For years, we’ve passed by this road along the Penna river countless times.
Every time we pass by this road, we point to that small shelter on the roadside and exclaim, “that is where Mahakavi Tikkana translated the Mahabharatam !” For us, it is always a matter of pride that the great poet who played a great part in shaping of the Telugu language lived and wrote the epic in our hometown !
Having said that, until last year, we never really stopped by to visit the “Tikkana Mahabharatam rachinchina mandiram” (so says the signboard) or the mandir where Tikkana wrote the Mahabharatam and going a step further, until a few months back, we did not even know that Tikkana lived in a village that was just a stone’s through away from our own native village ! In fact, though the village is very famous for its hand loom sarees, very few people know the heritage that lies hidden there. Continuing our Telugu heritage series, following our visit to Pothana’s Bammera in Warangal, this time we headed to Tikkana’s Patur.
The making of an epic
The story of how Andhra Mahabharatam came into being is well known, you could read it on the internet but since it is one of our favorite stories on history and Telugu literature, though this post would turn into a 20 marks history answer, here is a retelling of it. The project of translating the Mahabharata into Telugu was initiated in the 11th Century A.D by Nannayya Bhattaraka, considered the first poet of recorded Telugu. Nannayya, who lived in Rajamahendravaram (Rajahmundry) during the reign of the Chalukya king Raja Raja Narendra, translated the first two chapters, Adi and Sabha Parvas. He died while writing the Aranya Parva. None of the poets after him wanted to attempt completing it because of superstitious beliefs.
An entire century later, in the 1200s A.D, Tikkana Somayaji, Prime Minister to Manumasiddhi who ruled Vikramasimhapuri, took up the translation work. He translated 15 chapters of the Mahabharata into Telugu avoiding the Aranya Parva. He began his work from Virata Parva and completed the rest of the epic.
Almost another century passed before Errapragada, the 14th Century poet, under the reign of the Reddy dynasty, decided to break the jinx and translated the untouched portion of the Aranya Parva, thus completing the Andhra Mahabharatam ! While in Nannayya’s time, Telugu had a lot of Sanskrit words in it, Tikkana’s language was closer to the common man’s Telugu. Errapragada mixed both the styles because he essentially fit in the final piece of the puzzle right at the centre !
Thus, together the 3 poets gave the Telugu language its most venerated epic, the Andhra Mahabharatam and are called the “Kavitrayam” (Trinity of Poets).
Funnily, even to this day, there are people who first read the Virata Parva and then begin from the Adi Parva of the Andhra Mahabharatam ! Some, like our late grandmother, would break a coconut as an offering to God after reading the Aranya Parva to ward off any jinxes !! There are people who take their history and literature very seriously !
Poetry in fabric
800 years after Tikkana, Patur is a small village, about 10 kms from Nellore and continues to be in the limelight for heritage of another kind, their hand loom silk and cotton sarees. Today, people know Patur only for the sarees. Almost every household in Patur has something to do with the hand looms, weaving or trading these textiles.
Though, it was visiting Tikkana’s village that lured us to Patur, we were keen to check out the hand looms as well. Reaching Patur, we first enquired about the Siddeswara Temple, believed to have been patronized by Tikkana. We were surprised that people were actually a little matter of fact about Tikkana or his legacy, they told us there was an old temple at the edge of the village in the middle of paddy fields.
Driving through the dusty lanes of the village, we reached the village main road which had rows and rows of shops/houses selling Patur sarees.
None of us was a shopaholic and we weren’t too keen about actually buying sarees but did visit a few shops just for sume fun. Most Patur sarees are made out of silk but cotton sarees are popular too. The sarees are plain with minimal design, we were told that that was the style of Patur and people could customize the designs according to their choice. We requested one of the shops to show us how the weaving was done.
The hand looms are located in the backyard of houses/shops. We found one weaver busy at work on a pit loom, weaving a green and orange silk saree.
It always baffles us how they manage to set the design string by string and then weave the sarees, mind you some of the patterns are very complicated and how they manage it with such accuracy seems like a miracle ! The weaver told us it took about 1-2 days to weave a saree.
Outside, we met a few ladies preparing the ground work for weaving the saree.
Their work involved arranging silk threads according to the saree pallu design, an extremely laborious effort. These women were attaching each fine thread from the black bundle to the threads of the purple bundle, using ash as a binding agent. This was going to be a black saree with a purple pallu. Imagine tying thousands of each and every thread of the thousands that go into becoming a saree and these women were not even looking down at their work, their hands seem to be working on their own ! You could only bow down to these people’s immense talent and handwork !
It was a humbling experience and even non-shopaholics like us couldn’t resist buying a saree or two as our tribute to their talent. Poetry continues to be created at Patur, this time in fabric !
Tikkana’s legacy
Lost in the wonder of hand loom textiles, we had almost forgotten the main purpose of our visit to Patur until we decided it was getting late and we had to head home. A few people directed us to the Siddeswara Temple. Located in the middle of paddy fields, the temple is accessible through the pathway across the fields.
Tikkana is believed to have been a patron of this temple. The temple has obviously been renovated but it is still in a bad shape.
Hardly anybody seemed to be visiting except the caretakers and the descendants of Tikkana, who we were told live in the city and visit the temple during festivals. It seems they also have possession of the writing equipment that belonged to Tikkana.
We had read about the Tulasi Kootam that Tikkana had worshipped, when we asked the locals, they pointed to a thick overgrowth and told us that was where Tikkana’s house was believed to have been located. The Tulasi Kootam is now hidden behind the maze of bushes. We wanted to venture closer but we were warned to stay away because the plot was infested with snakes. We had to satisfy ourselves with this long shot of the piece of land that was once Tikkana’s house !
We had this experience before when we visited Bammera, yet, standing there at Patur, you get this overwhelming feeling of pride about your heritage, your language and that is why history is important, to let you know the greatness that was once part of your land and that is still there for you to emulate !
Two days later, while traveling to Nellore, we made it a point to stop at the Tikkana mandiram on the banks of the Penna river. The mandir, a small room is in a pitiful state, totally neglected, covered in dry leaves and trash. The opening lines of Tikkana’s work, an invocation to Lord Siva has been painted on one of the walls.
The mandir is locked to prevent miscreants from entering and misusing the premises. We peeked in through the windows and where Tikkana must have once placed his sacred palm leaves, today, you will find sacks of cement !
“Tikkayya kalumulo teeyandhanalu” (The sweetness from Tikkana’s pen), so goes the state song of Andhra Pradesh, Tikkana’s pen weaved a sweet magic in this very room !
The Penna river flows beside the mandir, what a sight it must have been for Tikkana to sit in that mandir and view the Penna during the days of its glory, the river may have inspired many a literary idea !
We remembered a lesson from our Telugu textbook way back in the late 1980s, titled “Kavitrayam”, that was our first brush with the founding fathers of Telugu literature. We were brought up to idolize them and they were our literary heroes. Visiting these places was like coming face to face with them, what would we do if we met them? Imagine their plight when they realize that the generations that came centuries after them cannot speak a single sentence in Telugu without using a foreign word !
Telangana region gave us the Bhagavatham, while Andhra Mahabharatam took shape in Andhra Pradesh, together they are two invaluable gems of Telugu literature, goes to prove the words of a famous Telugu song “Vachindanna, Vachadanna, varala Telugu okatenanna” (Whatever the dialect and culture, Telugu is one). Irrespective of the political scenario, people would do well to remember this !
Info tidbits
– Patur is accessible from Nellore by road, it is around 30 minutes drive from the city on the Kovur route.
– Patur sarees can be purchased directly from the shops in the village. All shops seemed to have a good collection. Most of the prices are wholesale rates, you could bargain a bit too !
Since the last decade, every time we visited Tirupati, somehow, a trip to Sri Kalahasti was not on the cards. This glorious temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in the form of the Vayu Linga is one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalas and only a half an hour drive from Tirupati. This time, we decided to complete this long pending visit to Sri Kalahasti.
Planets to our rescue !
Sri Kalahasti, apart from being an important Shiva temple, is also famous for the Kalasarpa Dosha puja to Rahu and Ketu, the two astrological planets that cause problems in people’s horoscopes and it is believed that performing this puja would remove the bad effects of these two planets. The plan to visit Sri Kalahasti came up because the head of our family thought we needed help from Rahu and Ketu to drive some sense into our lives !
It took us about 2 hours to reach Sri Kalahasti from Nellore. We reached around breakfast time and tried the Chennai Saravana Bhavan hotel. Don’t get carried away by the name, these hotels in Sri Kalahasti are only franchises and close to the original in taste but we suppose it doesn’t matter if you are grabbing a quick bite.
After breakfast, we headed to the hall where the Rahu-Ketu puja is performed. The tickets range between Rs.300/-, Rs.750/- and Rs.1500/-, higher the ticket cost, the lengthier, detailed and personal the puja ! We bought the Rs.750/- ticket and were taken to a hall where there were several other people waiting. If you buy Rs.300/- ticket, your puja companions would probably be in the 100s. For the Rs.1500/- ticket, the puja is performed inside the temple. The puja is performed throughout the day.
The duration of the puja is around 30 minutes, with the priest instructing you how to go about it.
The temple maze
The Sri Kalahasti temple has a history of over 1000 years starting from the Pallavas to the Cholas, the Vijayanagar kings and so on. In addition to its ancient history, there are several legends and stories associated with it. You could read all these interesting stories on the internet. The temple’s architecture reminds of you of the massive temples of Tamil Nadu, especially the one at Thiruvanaikoil in Srirangam, most of these temple were built around the same time period.
Temples like Sri Kalahasti are like a maze, they are so huge that you are sure to lose your way in the labyrinth of corridors and pillars and your mind will stop recording the thousands of figures and sculpture after a certain point. You don’t just visit these temples, you experience them !
Inside the dark sanctum is the Vayu Linga. They say the lamps inside the Garbhalaya flicker even though there is no window or opening inside the chamber because of the presence of the Vayu Linga. We don’t know if it is true but we did find the lamps swaying slightly. Symbolic of God being Omnipresent like the air?
In the din of the temple, we lost sight of our family and after a few frantic and panic filled moments, found them near the Goddess Prasunamba’s shrine. The view of the Goddess’ idol in the dark sanctum lit up by the oil lamps is an unforgettable sight !
We left the temple around lunch time and headed out to visit a few places in the vicinity.
Bharadwaja Ashram
Before we headed out for lunch, we visited the Bharadwaja Ashram, just a kilometer from the temple. There is a small temple here but the main attraction is the temple tank and its serene surroundings.
It was a hot afternoon but somehow it felt very cool around here, it could be the breeze or the water or the silence of the ashram, it could even be the sight of these ducks relaxing in the water !
Fallen heritage
In 2010, the 500 year old Raja Gopuram of Sri Kalahasti temple built during the reign of Sri Krishnadevaraya collapsed due to negligence and some drilling work nearby. The gopuram was one of the tallest temple towers in India. Today, the gopuram’s stones lie in a rubble near at the entrance of the Bharadwaja Ashram.
Some more lie near the parking lot, surrounded by filth and litter. We couldn’t bear to stand there even to get a proper picture, the foul smell was nauseating.
The government is rebuilding the gopuram and it plans to use the same ancient stones. If that is the plan, then why are these remnants of our heritage left out in the open and subjected to such disrespect? Will we ever learn to take care of our ancient history?
We had lunch at another Chennai Saravana Bhavan and as the previous one, the food was just about alright.
Bhakta Kanappa’s hill
One of the popular legends associated with Sri Kalahasti is the story of Bhakta Kannappa, a tribal who a was a devotee of Lord Shiva and worshipped an idol on top a hill near Sri Kalahasti. It is said that being a crude tribal, Kannappa would clean the idol with water held in his mouth and place meat as offerings. So the story goes that Lord Shiva to test his devotion, caused the temple to collapse and when the falling stones injured the idol, the Shiva Linga’s eye bled, he plucked out his eye and placed it in the place of the bleeding eye. The other eye began to bleed too and Kannappa plucked out both his eyes and gave them up for the Lord ! Pleased with his devotion, Lord Shiva restored both this eyes. This story of Kannappa is believed to have happened in a steep hill very close to the temple.
We’ve been meaning to visit this hill during all our previous visits but it materialized this time. We had assumed it to be a difficult climb but it turned out to be a rather easy one, there are about 200 steps and they are not as steep as they look from a distance.
The entrance to the hill is within the temple premises. As you climb up the hill, you get a view of the Kalahasti temple.
The climb also gives you some lovely views of the Swarnamukhi river on whose banks the temple has been built, a hill on the opposite side where a temple for Goddess Durga has been built and a view of the Kalahasti town. You can also see the place where the original Raja Gopuram once stood, construction work is in progress.
At the top of the hill,is the temple where Kannappa is believed to have worshipped Lord Shiva, the Linga has carvings in the shape of eyes.
It is very pleasant up here, even in 3PM heat, the breeze was refreshing. Even more refreshing was the glass of buttermilk that we had on the way down the hill, a few old women climb all the way up here in the hot sun to sell buttermilk. We also spotted to boys walking into the woods with their musical instruments. They told us they came up there to practice.
They even told us that there was route on the other side of the hill that would lead to the Bharadwaja Ashram. As we were leaving, the air was filled with the music from their instruments, though not perfect, the boys seemed to be having fun.
We left Sri Kalahasti with a very happy feeling. Rahu and Ketu seemed to be pleased with our prayers !
Info tidbits
– Sri Kalahasti is 32 kms from Tirupati and is easily accessible by train and bus.
– There are a few hotels at Sri Kalahasti if you plan to stay overnight or you could stay at Tirupati.
– The temple is open from 5 AM to 9 PM, there are special entry tickets of Rs.50/-.
– On most days, the temple has a decent crowd, weekends and Mondays see bigger crowds. During Shiva Ratri and festivals, the temple is thronged by lakhs of devotees.
– An interesting place within the temple is the Pathala Ganapathi shrine. It is located underground and you have to climb down some very steep steps in a small, closed, dark underground chamber. People are sent down in batches. On crowded days, it takes a long time to visit the Pathala Ganapathi.
– The Sukhabramha Ashram is another place of visit nearby.
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