Shamshabad-- Ammapalli—Road trip to Sri Ramachandra swamy temple!!!!

Temple Timings : 6am – 1 pm &  4pm -7 pm

Date of Travel : 16th March 2016

Trip vehicle :Tavera 

Vicinity:

• Step Well
• Sri Rama Temple
• Old Palaces in front of temple
• Vishnu in sleeping posture at entrance of tower.

Trip plan:

Being an avid photographer and having bought a new DSLR, my hands were itching to explore my photography skills. This was a sudden trip as we planned a motorbike ride to explore but my friends picked me up in Hitech City in their SUV (Tavera ).

Now the question arises where  to go?

We were wandering on roads for sometime & planning where to go ,upon twist we were on the ORR Express way and were moving ahead without any thought where to go.After a long journey, reached Shamshbad .A sudden thought brew up in my mind was to visit Shamshabad Temple which was more often seen in movies. sooner my idea brew up in my mind, plan of action implemented ,we were diverted from highway to village road and travel of 5kms inside Ammapalli village we get an arch way on left side that leads us to the  entrance of temple.

Shamshabad Temple

Shamshabad is around 30kms away from Hyderabad The Temple is believed to be built in 13^th century by Vengi Kings and people here say that the idol of Sri Rama here is of 1000 years old. This temple is assumed to be older than Golconda Fort. The temple here is also called as Kodanda Ramalayam and the temple tower is here 7-tiered.

Temple is built in mixed architecture style mingling up with northern & southern architecture. The temple tower is built in solid stone & masonry in south Indian style. The lower layer had brick works & exposed at the back side that appears to be newly built to increase the temple tower. We can climb up the gopuram (temple tower) from a small stair case. 

Unique Feature of temple !!!!

Here Lord Rama holds an arrow in his hand along with Sita and Lakshmana in sanctum sanctorum which is formed of on single black stone. 

Usually Hanuman accompanies Lord Rama in inner sanctum, but here we find two Hanuman idols one is of sindur Hanuman and other black stone Hanuman. One Hanuman here is placed at the foot step of dwajasthabha and the other Hanuman is placed backside of dwajasthambha facing temple tower as if he is welcoming devotees.

Vishnu in Sleeping posture!!!!!

At entrance of the temple tower there is a large image of lord Vishnu in blue colour in sleeping posture placed above the tower.

Temple premises!!!!!

Temple is built with large corridors. We were on wrong time as the temple was closed, so we completed our darshan from outside and continued with our photography.

Mean while we observed a newly married couple were on photo shoot in the temple premises.Out of my surprise  I observed here  two dwajasthambas  in the temple courtyard.

There is a tree and under this Naga silas were installed, where usually devotees tie offerings in a cloth and tie to tree praying for fulfillment of their wishes. We see number of trees planted but my favorite is Parijath tree (Nyctanthes Arbor Tristis) which has fragrance but due to summer no flowers disappointed... On temple terrace there is a seating arrangement for devotees to watch temple fairs.

  

We were not aware of any information about temple, but we were successful in getting details about temple from locales .They said Radiocarbon dating was done on the sand retrieved from the masonry work of the temple. 

Outside of the temple

After coming out of the temple, I found some buildings (ruins) in the front of the temple which clearly looked ancient.

Step well

Ancient temple pond. The pond had no water due to hot summer and it is surrounded by porticos and once it provided shelter to the pilgrims and its surroundings were filled with coconut trees.

In short this temple is called as cinema wala temple or cinema gudi in local language which means temple belongs to film people because  lot of shoots were done in this temple .There is a strong belief  that any movies scene shot here will be a hit.

By 02:00 PM we started our journey back.  Time well spent at the temple, unexpected visit, except small disturbance is we could not bare summer heat.  

Now some typical pain had started in our stomach ,we realized that its lunch time.At Shamshabad we found a hotel,had lunch and headed towards ,unplanned exploration again. 

How to reach this place:

From ORR –take exit 17, travel till you reach Rallaguda Road, on the left you will find a big arch on the main road.