At Draksharamam in the Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh stands the great Bhimeswara temple, one of the five Pancharama Kshetras and revered as the Dakshina Kashi, the Kashi of the South. In the Pancharama legend, when the Shiva linga worn by the demon Tarakasura was shattered by Kumara Swamy, one fragment fell here and was enshrined, tradition holds, through the worship of Surya, the Sun. The towering linga rises through two storeys, its upper portion worshipped from the first floor.
Draksharama is doubly sacred, for within it abides Manikyamba, one of the eighteen Maha Shakti Peethas, so that Shiva and Shakti are revered here together. Raised by the Eastern Chalukyas over a thousand years ago and rich with ancient inscriptions, the temple is celebrated in the Telugu poet Srinatha's Bhimakhanda, and stands among the most venerated Shiva shrines of the Godavari country.
