| The Sthalapurana
and the legend of the temple are as follows: Pariyatra,
who was an ancient king, had a son called Hrusva Sringi who was born with a number of
bodily deformities. Hrusva Sringi, in order to cure himself of his bodily deformities,
went on a long pilgrimage and finally came to the hill of Mangalagiri and stayed there for
three years doing tapascharya. All the Devas advised him to continue at Mangalagiri and do
penance to the Lord. King Pariyatra was not very happy at this intense tapascharya of his
son, and therefore came to the hill in order to dissuade him from taking to the rigors of
penance, and waited to take him away to his own kingdom. Hrusva Sringi, not being in a
position to decline his father's overtures, assumed the shape of an elephant and became
the mountain Mangalagiri, so that his body might serve as the abode of Lard
Narasimha in his Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy akara. Since the intense devotion of a Bhakta who
offered his own body as an abode of the Lord is immortalized here. Mangalagiri is said to
be a very holy mountain. |
