Draksharamam

Draksharamam is a small town near Ramachandrapuram. Its Bhimeswara Swamy temple is one of the five Pancharama shrines of Shiva in Andhra Pradesh. The same complex has the shrine of the goddess Manikyamba, one of the 18 Maha Shakti Peethas, so the god and the goddess are honoured side by side. The town takes its name from Daksha, Sati’s father, whose sacrifice is said to have been held here.

Tradition credits the temple to the Eastern Chalukya king Bhima I, who ruled in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. The Archaeological Survey of India protects it. Compound walls with gateways on all four sides surround a shrine built on two levels. The crystal linga rises through both, so you see its base on the ground floor and its top from the upper floor. Later dynasties, among them the Cholas, Eastern Gangas, Kakatiyas and Vijayanagara kings, supported the temple, and several hundred inscriptions survive on its walls. Water for worship comes from the Sapta Godavari tank.