On a hill at Yadagirigutta, some sixty-five kilometres from Hyderabad in Telangana, stands the temple of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy, revered as a Pancha Narasimha Kshetra where the Lord is worshipped in five forms — Jwala, Yogananda, Gandaberunda, Ugra, and Lakshmi Narasimha. Tradition holds that the sage Yadarshi performed severe penance here, and the Lord appeared to him in these fivefold manifestations, giving the hill its name of Yadadri.
Long a cave shrine of great sanctity, Yadadri has in recent years been magnificently rebuilt entirely in carved black granite, in the Kakatiya and Dravidian traditions, into one of the grandest temples of the region. The Lord of Yadadri is invoked especially as a fierce protector who removes fear, illness, and misfortune, and the hill draws vast crowds on Narasimha Jayanti and through the year.
