PALAKOL HISTORY

PALAKOL Tourist attractions

Main tourist attraction of Palakol is the Ksheera Rama Lingeswara Swami Temple with its 36.6 Mts high Tower (Pedha Gopuram) (A 15th century temple built for the Hindu God Shiva. It is one of the five Pancharamas). The temple has a unique white shiva lingam and the temple tower is one of the tallest among the temple towers in Andhra Pradesh. This place was earlier called as Dugdoparanapuram Upamanyupuram "Ksheera rampuram " and based on this temple. Later called as "Pala Kolanu", which all tries to convey the meaning of milk pond. This town and the Ksheera Rama Lingeswara Swami temple are located in the area subtended by the Shiva temples at Srisailam,Draksharamam & Kaleswaram also called "Trilinga Desam"(meaning "the region bounded by three lingas") which in following centuries of existence became Telugu desam,the language spoken by the people around these locations was named as Telugu,hence it is believed by some historians that the word "Telugu" was born from this region . Ashtabhuja Lakshmi Narayana Swami Temple (China Gopuram) which is known for its traditions and festivities like Bhramostavam, (generally held in May of every year) draw large number of devotees from nearby places. Dhanurmasam is celebrated in the month of December in the remembrance of love of Andaal for Lord Sri Krishna.chinna gopuram,which is considered as ashtabhuja lakshmi narayana temple is the one of the only two temples that exist in india for ashtabhuja lakshmi narayana temple,and only one in the south india. Lush green fertile Paddy Farms, Coconut farms, Fisheries and prawn ponds add to the attractions around the town.

PALAKOL Interesting facts

Palakol is a coastal town with a population of approximately 80,000 (including the Mandal (Taluka) population) and is an important trading centre for the surrounding villages.Palakol is the birth place of Padmasri Dr Allu Ramalingaiah Telugu film celebrities like Dasari Narayana Rao ,Pinisetti Sreerama Murthi, Allu Venkata Satyanarayana Kodi Ramakrishna,Pinnisetti Ravi Raju, Addala Chanti, Chintapalli Ramana, Korada Chalam, Vakada Appa Rao, Allu Aravind (famous Film Producer Telugu and Hindi) Allu Arjun [(Banni) (Telugu Hero)] Other popular [Relangi Narasimha Rao, Mutcherla Aruna and Nalla Ramamurthy hail from this place. U. Srinivas, a world renowned exponent of Mandolin, was born here. He was the first person to play carnatic music on this German instrument.Transport Buses operated by APSRTC & Private Travel Agencies run from Palakol to Hyderabad, Vizag, Vijayawada and Tirupati. Situated along the Narsapur-Vijayawada Railway route, Three express trains service the town.[6] A bridge was built on Vasista Godavari near Chinchinada 7 km away from Palakol connecting East Godavari & West Godavari Districts of Andhra Pradesh,Agriculture Palakol is surrounded by rich fertile paddy fields and coconut groves.It is said Dutch started plantations of Chinni, lemon and orange. The Town is also famous for Pomelo fruit (pumpara panasa kaaya). Weekend market on Saturday makes the town busy with business. The town has a festive look every Saturday with people coming to the market from in and around Palakol for purchases. Lalita Kalanjali Nataka Academy supported by famous film artist & director Kodi Ramakrishna conducts Nataka Potilu (Drama Competitions) every year, which are famous in the State. For the prize giving of these drama competitions, many celebrates of telugu film industry come to palakollu. Such as super star krishna, Ramyakrishna, Ravali,Roja and many other famous actors. First Elected Municipal Chairaman Sri Bolla Venkata Subba Rao, Give water facility in 1920. Sri Allu Venkata Satyanarayan Elected 4 times as M.L.A. period 1983 to 1989 and 1994 to 2004. Sri Chodisettu Surya Rao Elected as Municipal Chairman long Period 1956 to 1971 and 1981 to 1986 A myth or legend behind the Ksheera Rama Lingeswara Swami Temple bodes palakollu to flood. In the legend the known goddess Ganga, one of the wives of Lord Siva is believed to have left her nose ring up on the top of this temple. They say she tries every now and then to get her nose ring back, in doing so palakollu would be flooded because Ganga, the goddess of water would bring flood of water with her. As the temple is highest of all buildings in palakollu, the whole town would be under water. Every time she makes an attempt to fetch her ring, Another god called Antheravedhi Narasimha Swami uses his stick and taps it on her head stopping her and protecting palakollu from the danger.And the ring is invisible so, no humans can see it.Many people don't believe in this story, but it is a story that circulated around a while ago in palakollu. Palakol has the highest gaali gopuram in Andhra Pradesh,i.e famously referred as peddha gopuram,and from top of that whole palakol town can be viewed. Palakol is famous for theaters,to where even people from surrounding villages and towns come to see,and it has 7 air-conditioned theaters,and the first digital theater in Andhra Pradesh is constructed in palakol itself named Srinivasa Digital Theater, where film is projected in digital way through satellites. palakol is famous for its higher number of rice mills,paper mill and once upon a time existed sugar factory. The weekly market that is conducted on every saturday is a famous place where traders from other places of west godavari,east godavari and krishna district come to perform their business and approximately Rs.2 crore business occurs for every saturday. This place is very famous for the shooting locations for many films due to the surrounding greenery and the surrounding beautiful villages like poduru. Noted film actor Chiranjeevi stood for the Palakollu legislative assembly seat for Andhra Pradesh State Assembly and lost the election in 2009. which makes it a part of National Highway 214.

Pancharama Kshetras

The Pancharama Kshetras are five ancient Hindu temples of Lord Shiva situated in Andhra Pradesh. The Sivalingas at these temples are made from a single Sivalinga. As per the legend, this Sivalinga was owned by the Rakshasa King Tarakasura. No one could win over him due to the power of this Sivalinga. In the war between deities and Taraka, Kumaraswamy and Taraka were face to face. Kumaraswamy used his Sakthi aayudha to kíll Taraka. By the power of Sakti aayudha the body of Taraka was torn into pieces. But to the astonishment of Lord Kumaraswamy all the pieces reunited to give rise to Taraka. Kumaraswamy repeatedly broke the body into pieces and it was re-unified again. Lord Kumaraswamy was confused and was in an embarrassed state then Lord Srimannarayana appeared before him and said “Kumara! Don’t get depressed, without breaking the Shiva lingham worn by the asura you can’t kíll him” you should first break the Shiva lingam into pieces, then only you can kíll Taraka Lord Vishnu also said that after breaking, the shiva lingham also will try to unite. To prevent the Linga from uniting all the pieces should be fixed in the place where they fall by worshipping them and building temples on them. By taking the word of Lord Vishnu Lord Kumaraswamy used his Aagneasthra (weapon of fire) to break the Shiva lingham worn by Taraka. The Shiva lingham broke into five pieces and was trying to unite by making Omkara nada (Chanting Om). Then Surya deva by the order of Lord Vishnu fixed those five pieces of Shiva linga and worshipped them by building temples over them. By the formation of temple the pieces stopped their movement and were famous of panchrama kshetras. All the five Shivalinga in these five places have got scaly marking as them which are believed to be formed by the power of Agneyasthra used by Lord Kumaraswamy. According to legend, these five pieces were installed as Sivalingas at five different temples by Indra, Surya, Chandra, Vishnu and Kumaraswamy at the respective places.