Stalapurana of Nagalamadaka
This is a story that has passed down generations and still continues to leave devotees in awe. The saga goes back 400 years ago, to a day when the temple’s priest “Sri Annam Battaru” had a dream in which God Sri Subramaneswara Swami appeared and said that “I will be in the North Pinakini River, bring me from there and establish a temple there”. Taking a cue from the dream, the people started digging to look for the statue of the Lord. They were overjoyed when they finally dug up the present Mulavigraha.
Nagalamadaka is located at 2-3 miles away from the adjoining Andhra Pradesh border of Karnataka. It is natural then for the local people to speak Telugu. In Telugu “Nagala” means “Snake or Naga” and Madike means “Negilu”. So in Telugu it is called “Nagalamadaka” and in Kannada it is called as “Nagalamadike”.
Sri Annam Battaru, who found the deity in North Pinakini River established a temple with 3 stones in 3 directions and covered it with one more stone. He considered it to be the temple and so he started performing pooja from that day onwards. Till today his successors are performing pooja at the established spot.
The beautiful statue of the deity, which was found by Sri Annam Battaru is 2 feet and 9 inches long having seven snakeheads. And the rest of his body is in round shape in two circles. The statue is in standing position on a rock.
As written in Brahmanda Purana, a human being’s life is full of “Malamaaya and Karma Paasha”. Out of all Paashas, Naga Paasha has assumed more importance. Due to Subramanya Swami’s Aradhana, Jeevaloka is obtaining Paasha Mukthi. The son of Eshwara – Kumara, Shanmukha, Skanda, and Guhaa, determined this. Kumara Swami was merged with snake Vaasuki near Kumara Dhara River in a big forest. This place is called as “Kukke Subramanya” in Dakshina Kannada Sulya Taluk. This place is considered as “Adi Subramanyam”.
So Sri Kukke Sri Subramanya is called as “Adi Subramanyam”, Sri Ghati Subramanya is called as “Madhya Subramanyam” and Sri Nagalamadaka Kshetra Subramanya is called as “Antya Subramanyam”. This is how it is well known today!