Kesanakurru-Venugopalaswamy Aalayam

The yugas old kshetra was popularly called Vyasakasi in the past. It has a king legend. It is indeed a gift of Vedavyasa, who on leaving Varnasi settled down at Draksharama at the timely advice of Mother Annapurneswari. Having settled down with his disciples at Draksharama, he intensely yearned to make this region as sacred as Varanasi. Surprisingly. he found Bhimeswara, the presiding deity of this place infinitely compassionate and liberating the adorers without subjecting them to gruesome ordeals. When he was implementing his well-laid out scheme, he heard as aerial voice uttering - Kasinakuru meaning thereby that it would flourish as miniKasi, which, due to imperfect usage turned out Kesanakuru. From this it can be deduced that it was predominantly a Saivakshetra, yet it contains many shrines for Vaishnavate gods. Among such, the Venugopalaswamy can be singled out as a glaring example. There are some more alayas dedicated to Subrahmanya, Mallamamba in addition to Vyaseswaraswamy, the popular archadaivam here.

The temple is fairly big possessing all the essential parts. The archamurti is a well-chiseled granite image affording a grand feast to the eyes. He grants boons lavishly, if He is gratified with pure devotion. The pond lying here is said to cleanse the bathers dirt clinging to their physical bodies in addition to purging of sins sticking on to the souls. All visitors invariably bathe here before availing the darsan of the Lord. 

It lies 16 km off Amalapuram in the district of East Godavari of Andhra Pradesh, connected by bus service from several towns nearby.

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