| During the great
Sivarathri festival, when thousands of people congregate to bathe in the sacred waters of
the Pathalaganga and worship Lord Mallikarjuna, the Chenchus also go and worship inside
the Garbha Griha independent of all the Priests’. To this day, caste, creed or sex
does not prohibit any one, providing he or she is a Hindu, from doing Abhisheka to the
Lord from the waters of the Pathalaganga or to do Archana with flowers directly. Such a
catholic form of worship is unknown anywhere else in Andhra, except at Srisailam and this
custom probably dates back to the Buddhist period when caste rules were not so rigid. Srisailam may be traced back to the Buddhist period and perhaps even earlier
than to the Mahayana school of the Buddhism, which is known to have flourished during the
1st century A.D. The Buddhist pilgrims, Fahiyan and Hieuntsang have made references to the
Sriparvata hill, which is in the Nagarjunakonda valley of the same river Krishna. |
