Samalkot

The Kumararama Bhimeswara Swamy temple stands in Bhimavaram, an old quarter of Samalkot (Samarlakota) in Kakinada district. Inscriptions in the temple call the place Chalukya Bhimavaram. It is one of the five Pancharama shrines of Shiva in Andhra Pradesh. One local tradition says the five lingas are pieces of a linga worn by the demon Tarakasura, broken when Kumara (Subrahmanya) killed him. Kumara is said to have installed this piece, which gives the shrine its name.

The temple is credited to the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya Bhima I, who ruled in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. It closely follows the Bhimeswara temple at Draksharamam. Two sandstone walls enclose it. The shrine has two floors, and the tall limestone linga rises through the ground-floor roof, so its top is worshipped upstairs. The goddess here is Bala Tripura Sundari. The Archaeological Survey of India protects the temple as a monument of national importance.