Papavinasam Teertham/ Paapvinasam Teertham

As the name means Paapvinasam teertham is supposed to be a place where taking a bath relieves one of all your sins. Paap: sins, Vinasam: destroyed

Tirumala Nambi, a strong devotee of the Lord used to carry water from here everyday for abhishek or holy bath of Lord Venkatesha. I shall be writing more about this devotee in my post on Akashganga teertham.

Through forests on either side, the road to Paapvinasam temple also known as Papanasam is around a 30 minute drive. The road is very good. We decided to go straight to Paapvinasam teertham and then do Akashganga and Venugopala Swamy on our return journey back to Tirupati.

There is a car park and no vehicle is permitted to go beyond that.

go past souvenir shops

After passing through the shops, straight ahead is the dam and one needs to turn to the right for Paapvinasam teertham.

A flight of steps down and you see water coming from 10 lion headed spouts. Tirumala faced acute water shortage in the late seventies because of scanty rainfall. The dam which is on Seshachalam hills on Swarnamukhi river provides water not only to this teertham but has also solved the water problem in Tirumala.

The flow of water was less when we went, perfect timing would be during the rainy season when the Kalyani reservoir is full and overflowing. On top of the spouts are seen Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu blessings all of us.

temple of Goddess Ganga, straight ahead

For those who wish to bathe, on the side there are men and women changing rooms and toilets. It is advised to bathe or at least splash onself with water before going for temple darshan.

Goddess Ganga temple

Godess Ganga, a close up

Goddess Ganga and Sri Anjaneya Swamy

Goddess Ganga and Sri Anjaneya Swamy(Lord Hanuman) are placed here and worshipped everyday.
Here at Papanasam as well later in Akashganga, I saw Goddess Ganga and Sri Anjaneya together. I asked my mother about this and she told me apparently the reason being:

• both are papanasams
• Ganga comes out from the deadlock of Lord Shiva and Hanuman or Anjaneya is an avatar of the later.

After coming out we took the side path which had a well kept garden for those who might want to relax for sometime. We now make our way to the car park towards Akashganga teertham.

On the way, I see stones stacked on top of each other. I asked the driver the reason for this and he said people make as a wish for building a house.

I had seen similar structures in Cambodia Weekend at Bokor, Cambodia and Nepal, Places to visit in Muktinath, Nepal in Muktinath.