Manikyamba Devi Temple

Manikyamba Devi temple at Draksharamam in Andhra Pradesh is one of the Ashtadasa Shakti temples. It is believed that the Navel part of Devi Sati has fallen here when Lord Vishnu has cut her corpse with his Sudarshan Chakra. It is also one among the five powerful temples of Lord Shiva, well known as Pancharama temples. Here Lord Shiva is in the name of Bhimeswara Swamy and her consort is Devi Manikyamba. Temple is situated on Eastern Bank of the great river Godavari. Manikyamaba Devi temple present in the inner circle (prakara) of Lord Bhimeswara Swamy temple. It is present in North East Corner of the campus. There is a Srichakra below Manikyamaba Matha idol. Manikyamaba Devi will see left side, suggesting us she was worshiped previously in Vama marga (Left route). Sun god and Saptarshis worshiped Lord Bhimeswara Swamy and Manikyamba Devi here. According to local legend, sacred Draksharama Temple has a ‘Shiva lingam’ enshrined by god Surya. The temple was built by angels in one night. The construction of the perimeter wall could not be completed before sunrise and still stands incomplete. Several attempts have been made to construct the uncompleted part of the wall but all those efforts have failed with the constructed wall collapsing within a few months. The specialty of this Shiva Lingam is that the early morning tender Sunlight falls on the Linga. There are nearly 800 ancient scripts on the walls of the temple. The Siva Linga in this temple is said to be one large crystal which is 2.6 meters high. Siva is accompanied by Dakshayani, who is the first wife of Siva. Legends of Manikyamba Devi: There are three stories related to Manikyamba Devi. First one is, A Brahmin widow made a golden idol to remember her died, a daughter. But after some time, the idol got talking power. This idol was decorated with Manikyas(gems), hence the name Manikyamba or Manikyeswari. Bhimadeva, a new king came to this area taken that idol and worshiped her as his Kula devata. Some stories also tell us that Manikyamba name comes from a word Mainakamba, That means she was the daughter of Menaka Devi, wife of Himavanta. Gradually the word Manikamba turned as Manikyamba in the time period. There is another important story regarding Manikyamaba Devi. Manikyamba Devi is the daughter of a prostitute. One day she saw Lord Bhimeswara in her dream and decided that she will marry Lord Bhimeswara only. She showed great devotion towards Lord Shiva, and finally got Lord Bhimeswara Swamy as her husband. A great Poet Srinatha, belonging to the 14th century also mentioned this story in his great work, Bhimakhanadam. From there onwards, Manikyamba Devi was worshiped as Mother goddess. Manikyamba Devi also considered as Kula devata of vesyas.