Stories 5
Tradition: Vaishnava · clear
Annamacharya's copper-plate songs
The Telugu poet Annamacharya sang more than thirty thousand songs to Venkateswara of Tirumala; engraved on copper, they lay forgotten in a temple vault until 1922.
Kanakadasa's window at Udupi
Turned away from the Udupi temple, the shepherd-saint Kanakadasa sang outside until the image turned to face him through a gap in the wall.
Kanakadasa's window at Udupi
Madhva finds the Krishna image in a lump of clay; the low-caste singer Kanakadasa, barred from the temple, sees the god turn west through a crack that became the Kanakana Kindi.
The Rama found in an anthill
A tribal woman finds Rama's images in an anthill on the Godavari; a tax official builds the temple with state money and is jailed for it.
The tribal woman who found Rama at Bhadrachalam
Pokala Dhammakka finds the images of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana in an anthill; the revenue officer Ramadasu builds the temple in 1674 and is jailed for using the state's money.