Bharatha Darshini: Madhavadhara: A Buddhist Site Near Simhachalam

Madhava swami temple, Madhavadhara, Visakhapatnam

This temple is adopted by Simhachalam Temple.
It is located on the south foot hill of Simhachalam.
The diety is Madhava Swamy and the water jet flow here is known as Madhavadhara,
from which the locality got its name.
Some people prefer to take a holy bath in holy dharas (Madhavadhara).

Buddhist settlements on Simhachalam hill-range has come to light during a recent renovation and restoration works taken up by the Endowments Department. This site is presently Documented by the state Archaeology department and study of the site is in progress.

Coming to the point the sand blasting and restoration works on Chalukyan period Madhava Swamy Temple at Madhavadhara was completed recently, which not only exposed the intrinsic fine sculpting legacy of 14th Century A.D., but also some other interesting facts about the construction of the original temple on the base of Buddhist Vihara. The khondalite rocks(available on Eastern Ghats) are used for building the temple along with the Buddhist bricks from the vihara. These two (stones and bricks) possess the same color in general.

The rock and Brick alignments at Madhavadhara.
Bricks estimated to be from 3rd Century B.C. are now lying in a heap alongside the temple towards south

These bricks measured 52 cm X 28 cm X 8 cm, with structural characteristics of the bricks used in Buddhist sites in and around Visakhapatnam coastal region. A researcher in Buddhist sites of north Andhra Pradesh, he said there were foundation walls of a Buddhist vihara in the close vicinity.

Bricks estimated to be from 3rd Century B.C. are now lying in a heap alongside the temple, as the mast is being rebuilt with cement concrete. These Brick remnants are found scaterred from the first tier to the foot tier of the present temples at Madhavadhara.

The possible Buddhist site would have been a 4 -Tier semi terraced Buddhist Monastery as Remnants of chamber for monks to stay was found between the Mallikarjuna Swamy and Madhava Swamy temples that even today remain unexposed to the world due to several reasons like paucity of manpower and lack of will power among local administrators to permit the work.