BY
PRAGYANSHARAMA POLAVARAPU(VRS.SOMANCHI)
My friend was also
a senior post master who came from Warangal city to work in my leave
vacancy for a week. I had to go to Warangal city on some urgent private
work for about a week. The big wood pulp manufacturing company treated the post
master and the bank manager generally as their own staff and provided
board and lodge for small periods. Thus my friend was staying in the
company guest house. Towards the end of my leave after I returned from
Warangal city I suggested to my friend that we two visit the reputed Mallur
temple on the forested hill.
I could not visit the place
earlier though many times friends told me it is nice and holy place to be
visited. I did not in those times realize due to the daily heavy office
work —(which dragged on till 8 or 9 in the night everyday as I was rather a
slow worker in accounting work)– that the temple on the hill was such an
extremely nice place.
On the Sunday, we started by bus
early at 7 am at Kamalapur after having breakfast at the company canteen and
got down at Mallur by 7.30am . I also took from home glucose
biscuit packets and a bottle of water. After a few minutes of rest under the
majestic high and shady forest trees at the foot of the hill– ( I still
remember even after 23 years)– we proceeded towards the hill to start our
climb. It is not a thick dense forest l but a wild area of great
natural beauty with long lean trees and short bushes here and there among the
boulders with dense green foliage. I felt thrilled as we entered the
beautiful wild forest environment , a world completely different from the
world of crowds and ugly streets in the big city.
The path was not steep and had
no sharp stones or thorny bushes and reminded of a village road on
which in early mornings farmers go to their farms and cattle are taken to
the edges of forests for grazing. There is a continuous canopy of trees. As we
walked the path sometimes rose a little and after a few hundred
meters went down through a depression. Actually this long hill is the first of
a small range of thickly forested green hills. A thing to be noted is that a
big long depression full of forest trees starts at the end portion of the long
temple hill. The other two or three hills coming after the temple hill
are very high and steep and are full of thick green forest. We have to raise
our heads a little to see the forested crests of those hills.
A few sentences I scribbled in my
diary show the following –that it was a cool foggy sunlit morning
resounding with bird song ,that pencils of bright sunrays punched
holes in the thick high branches of the trees and illuminated fog (
proving Newton’s theory about rectilinear propagation of
light!) etc. It was pleasant cool morning weather. We learnt from the two
or three others ,who were walking along with us , that the
chief priest would arrive a little late on that day and that the main
rituals and “poojas”, recitation of holy hymns etc would be conducted
by him. The priest’s assistants were already at the temple
attending to preparatory work.
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