Sri Kalahasteeswara Temple, Srikalahasti

The story

The name of this place is said to come from three creatures: Sri, the spider; Kala, the snake; and Hasti, the elephant. The story says all three worshipped the lingam here in their own way: the spider wove a web over it to give it shade, the snake coiled around it in worship, and the elephant brought water in its trunk to bathe it. Pleased by their true devotion, Shiv ji gave all three moksha, and their marks are believed to be on the lingam still. The best-loved story here is that of the devotee Kannappa. Kannappa was a hunter whose devotion was simple and true. One day he saw blood flowing from one eye on the lingam. Without a thought he took out one of his own eyes and placed it there. Then the other eye began to bleed, and he got ready to give his second eye too. At that moment Shiv ji appeared, stopped his hand and granted him moksha. Another story says Vayu, the wind god, did tapasya here for thousands of years, so the lingam is called the Vayu Lingam. In history, Chola kings built the main structure in the 11th century, and in 1516 Emperor Krishnadevaraya built the tall gopuram and the hundred-pillared hall. That old gopuram fell in 2010; it was rebuilt in the same form and consecrated on 18 January 2017.