Mantralayam_Venkateswara_Temple
The Venkateswara temple is located a few kilo metres away from Mantralayam Raghavendra Swamy Temple, and the temple was constructed during the period of Guru Raghavendra, and he took the assistance of Venkanna, for building this temple. Venkanna was the then Minister of Adoni,and a great devotee of Guru Raghavendra. After obtaining permission from the Muslim ruler of Adoni, Venkanna had constructed this small, but lovely temple in a nice manner.
Both Venkanna and the Adoni ruler Masud Khan were staunch devotees of Guru Raghavendra, and they have eagerly carried out all the instructions given by Guru Raghavendra. When Guru Raghavendra had asked Venkanna to construct a Vishnu temple, he immediately agreed and built a beautiful Venkataramana temple in Mantralayam.
Similar to getting permission for construction of his Samadhi shrine at Mantralayam, Guru Raghavendra got the permission from Ma Manchalamma to construct the Venkataramana Temple also, since Ma Manchalamma is the Village deity of Mantralayam. After the construction of this temple,Guru Raghavendra had performed pujas to the Lord, and spent some of his valuable time in the Venkataramana Temple, and he has also written some divine works in this temple, by enjoying the divine vision of Lord Venkataramana.
This Venkateswara swamy is the Ishta Devatha, beloved deity, of Guru Raghavendra. Apart from this temple, Raghavendra Swamy has installed the idol of Rama Bhakta Hanuman before his Brindavana Shrine at Mantralayam. But still today, even though lot of devotees visits Mantralaya, only a few of them are visiting this famous and ancient Venkataramana Temple. It is the temple, which is considered as the favourite temple of Gururaja, and hence, while visiting the holy Mantralayam, it is our duty to visit this sacred temple also.
“OM”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR