Kalahasti Temple Festival

Place and community

Kalahasti temple festival is celebrated by the Hindus and takes place in Sri Kalahasti, an important temple devoted to Lord Shiva.

Month

The major festival in this temple takes place in the months of February-March and is spread over a period of 13 days.

About the temple

Sri Kalahasti is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is one of the Panchabootha Stalams and represents Vayu lingam or air, one of the five elements. The other temples are Tiruvannamalai (Fire), Chidambaram (Space), Tiruvanaikkaval (Water) and Kanchipuram (Earth) respectively.

It is located in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The temple is mentioned in pre-Christian Tamil literature. The architecture bears evidence of the influence of Cholas and Pallavas. The foundation of the present structure has been laid by the Cholas in the 10th century. Additions and alterations have been made to the temple by the subsequent rulers of Tamil Nadu and the Vijayanagar emperors.

Legends

The legend that is associated with the temple is associated with that a spider, a snake and elephant who were all living in vicinity and were devotees of Lord Shiva.

To please the Lord, the spider wove some splendid objects with silk, the elephant brought flowers and washed the idol with water and the snake decorated the idol with some special stones.

A fight with the snake and the elephant began when the elephant removed the precious stones brought by the snake, to decorate the idol with flowers. In the fight that followed, the spider got caught in the middle and the three eventually died.

This devotion was so strong that the Lord merged the three souls in Him and thus the name Sri Kalahasti where Sri means spider, Kala is the snake and hasti meaning elephant.

Kannappa Nayanaar, a hunter and an ardent devotee of Kalahasteeswarar offered his own eyes to Lord Shiva. Thus the hunter earned the name of Kannappan. His original name was Thinnan. His statue is therefore present in the sanctum.

Festivals

The major festival takes place in February/March and is spread over 13 days. Mahashivratri is one of the greatest festivals held in this temple. Large numbers of devotees gather in this temple to worship Lord Shiva.