Annavaram is the shrine to Lord Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Swamy. Now the popularity and importance of the temple is second to Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh. Lord Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Swamy is considered to be very powerful in fulfilling the wishes of the devotees and Lord Satyanarayana Swamy’s Vratam (worship) is done by the newlywed couples, during House Warming and during many other ceremonies.
This is a wish-fulfillment temple: “Anna” means whatever you say or you desire and “Varam” means boon, hence whatever you desire will be given as boon by the Deity. So, Annavaram is a place where one´s desire or wished gets fulfilled. There is another theory as per the puranas, the presiding Deity of this place blesses the devotees with Ananya Varam (Countless Boon), that´s why the place is called Annavaram.
Two testimonials related to the legend of Annavaram:
A born-crippled man of 30 years from West Bengal was taken to the Aanavaram temple and he visited the temple for 11 days. He returned to Burdwan after a couple of weeks sans any sign of being handicapped.
A brain-tumor patient didn’t have to undergo the critical surgery after his visit to the temple.
The skeptics may call the above-mentioned episodes as fake or unreal, but remember, FAKE and FAITH are same. What you Fake today may become your Faith tomorrow!!
Coming back to Annavaram temple, it’s the second most important temple after Tirupati. One thing must be considered. It’s not for nothing, a place of worship assumes such fame and recognition. There must be something to buttress the point.
Collingwood wrote in his book, ‘ The Faith of the faithfuls’: ‘Any place cannot become religiously and divinely important. Even if it becomes, its popularity may wane if the devotees don’t get mental and spiritual solace from that particular spot.’
Applying this observation of Collingwood, one must say Annavaram has been able to sustain its religious and spiritual myth for a sustained period of time to be considered second to Tirupathi in widespread fame.
Following are interesting tit-bits associated with the temple, devotees need to check Annavaram Temple timings before visiting the temple:
There are several other attractions within the temple premises like:
On the North Side of the Compound of the Temple, a Sun Dial was constructed in 1943 in the month of July showing the Indian Standard time within the easy Calculation by everybody. It is similar to the JantarMantar found in Delhi. The Sundial is one the attractive architecture of South India which was calculated and constructed by Brahma Sri Pidaparthi Krishna Murthy Sastry, Rajahmundry, during the time of Sri Raja Inuganti Venkata Raja Gopal Rama Surya Prakasa Rayanam Bahadhur; one of the Founders (Second Dynasty).
A Mandapam has also been constructed to provide space to conduct one thousand Satyanarayana Vratams at a time.
There is a Veda Pathshala attached to the temple where free boarding and lodging is provided to the Brahmin students admitted there. Religious discussions are arranged during Kalyanam days and other important festival days at this place.
Sanskrit is a must for those studying at Veda Pathshala. In fact, the only conversational language among the students is Sanskrit based on Panini’s Ashtadhyayi and Siddhantkaumudi, two standard grammar books to learn Sanskrit.
Significance of the temple: ‘Vrishkam annam neti abhavam’ (One visit to the temple will enable you to have the eternal blessings of getting food and sustenance. Anna also means food and ‘one will never have the scarcity of food’)
