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Sri Adinarayana Swamy Temple, Kodakanchi

People believe that a visit to Kanchipuram removes the doshas incurred by a lizard falling on you, not realising that they have a similar temple close at hand.

Here are a pair of gold and silver lizards on the ceiling and if you touch these, all the accumulated doshams are wiped out. Kodakanchi, about 50 km from Hyderabad, has the Sridevi Bhudevi Sametha Sri Adinarayana Swamy temple.

Long, long ago, there was a karnam (village accountant) Allani Ramaji Rao Deshpande (Senior). He had a dream in which God told him that an idol of his was stuck in a mountain and that he should rescue this and build a temple. “I have come all the way from Kanchi” Rao was told in the dream.

Rao told his mother about the dream and she said that if the dream was repeated then maybe they could take this matter seriously. He did get the same dream the next day. This time he was prepared and asked to be shown a path to take towards the mountain. “I will send a Garuda Pakshi. Follow the bird and wherever it stops, you will find me there,” Rao was told. The dream turned into reality when Rao followed the Garuda Pakshi. He created a path by splitting a mountain and found the idol in a forest.

A temple was then built on 200 acres of land and the village was soon recognised as Kada Kanchi, because this idol looked the same as that of the  Varada-rajaswamy temple at Kanchi-puram. “In fact the form of the balli (lizard) came along with the idol and this too was added to the temple during its construction,” says Mr Allani Ramaji Rao Deshpande (Junior), Who is the grandson of Allani Ramaji Rao Deshpande (Senior).

While that might be similar, it all ends there. The 200 acres belonging to the temple has gone, distributed as pattas, and only 14 acres remain. This has been given on lease, and earns income for the temple. There is the Gandikunta lake facing the temple and this too is given on lease for a few months to local fishermen.

“While people from the villages, near and far, do come to visit the temple for the lizards, they also take vows and then they do 11 pradakshinas. Once the vow is fulfilled they do 108 pradakshinas,” says Mr Allani Ramaji Rao Deshpande (Junior)

The temple has been renovated, but the old main dwaram has been left intact, giving one a wonderful feeling of being back in circa whenever. The newer part of the temple is colourful, with a large mandapam leading to the sanctum sanctorum. This temple rests on a rock and is surrounded by yesteryear structures. They definitely lend to the story of the temple being more than 700 years old. The old dwaram looks into a koneru (la-ke) whose water, used for the pujas, is green in colour, probably thick with moss. There is an old wall, which probably led to the main sanctum.

The old peepul tree still lifts the heat off you with its gentle breeze.