EACH REGION of India has a special place for its own God. Although temples abound for all deities of the Hindu pantheon everywhere in the country, a regional inclination is clearly visible. Thus we have the adoration for Krishna in Uttar Pradesh, the affection of Maharashtra for Ganesha, the reverence for Hanuman in Karnataka, the love of the Tamils for the"Tamil God" Muruga.

The presence of large tracts of forest and hills uninhabited for the most part, areas where lions would have freely roamed once, may be the reason why Andhra Pradesh seems to have evolved a distinct worship of Vishnu's fourth avatar, Narasimha. The paradox, a raw ferociousness suffused with an imponderable gentleness, is perhaps, what draws one again and again to the shrines of Narasimha.

As we cross into the temple, we see the Krishna on our left. Like many a Narasimha temple, the one in Mattapalli is a cave.We file through a short narrow passage and face the God immediately. A bas-relief, the silver kavacham, displays a fierce lion form with tribal overtones, moustache and all. On the wall, next to the main deity is his consort Rajalakshmi. On her
right can be seen a passage in the rock face, leading out, now blocked. This is the way to the river, through which the sage Bharadwaja is believed to have come every day to worship the deity. A few years ago, the river in spate came in through here and engulfed the Lord.

The Lord was worshipped only by the rishis and the devas. He then, appeared to a local, Masi Reddy, in a dream, told him the location of his abode which could be identified by the tree "the vedapatri," and instructed him to open up the cave so that human beings could also worship him.

``Masi Reddy could not find the tree at first. In his second attempt he saw a refulgent bird seated on it, and a monkey led him to the exact place in the face of the mountain that needed to be opened up.'' The temple closes at 12.30 p.m. and opens briefly before 1.30 p.m. for a final aarthi and distribution of prasadam. The temple does not open in the evenings for they are held sacred for worship by the rishis.

To reach mattapalli, we have to reach Kodad by bus, either from Hyderabad(200kms) or Vijayawada(99kms). From Kodad, we have to come to Huzoornagar(15kms) by bus & from there we have to reach Mattapalli by another bus.


Other Narasimha shrines nearby:

Mattapalli is actually the centre and in all four directions, there are other temples -Vedadri, Vadapally, Vethapuram and Mangalagiri - the pancha Narasimha kshetras.