An ancient cave temple dedicated to Lord Narasimha Swamy at Krosuru village in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh offers an excellent tourism potential as it is surrounded by a picturesque lake on a hillock.
This temple of swayambhu (self-manifested) man-lion incarnation of Lord Mahavishnu has few parallels to Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple at Yadagirigutta near Hyderabad, as the cave temples in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are hardly countable. With a natural rock shelter facing west inside, on the back side of it a carved relief of seated Lord Narasimha image. The rock shelter on the summit of this hillock transformed into a cave temple of Lord Narasimha during 15th A.D. when the Vijayanagara rulers sojourned the region.
The sculptural relief is badly eroded and only face of the deity is visible. The rock shelter can be reached through a flight of steps and currently the locals are worshipping the Lord as Kunda Pada Aisvarya Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy. The cave temple overlooks a lake. The pillared mandapam was constructed by Papanayanimgaru – a chieftain of the Vijayanagara kingdom.
A pillared mandapam was constructed and added to this open air rock shelter shrine for the benefit of devotees during medieval times and simultaneously a flight of rock cut steps were also provided from the foot of the hillock up to the shrine, said D. Kanna Babu, former superintending archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Temple Survey Project, Chennai. An inscriptional slab of 15th Century A.D. on the steps reveals that emperor Srirangaraya-I of Vijayanagara dynasty appointed chieftain Papanayanimgaru, grandson of Timmanayanimgaru, to make certain contributions to the Narasimha temple, including the construction of mandapam and steps around 1547 A.D., Mr. Babu said, and added that the inscriptional slabs are badly eroded.
“With the exposure of this temple, the list of hill shrines dedicated to the Lord Narasimha, including Mangalagiri, Simhachalam, Singaraya Konda, Vedadri and Yadadri, is strengthened,” he said. Mr. Babu stated that both the ancient temple and lake should be developed as a tourist destination.
