Jaadguru Sri Aadi Shankaracharya
Right from Sankaracharya, various saints and sages visited the Srisailam temple and contributed to the richness of the temple and culture of Hindu dharma. Apart from the great sages and saints, many rulers of ancient and modern India too visited the temple and contributed to temple and the last of such rulers is Sree Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Jaadguru Sri Aadi Shankaracharya came to Srisialam and wrote Shivananda Lahari.
Sharada Maata
Sharada Maata (wife of Sree Rama Krishna Pramahamsa) cam to Srisailam for Darshan.
Sripaada Sri Vallabha
Datta Guru Sampradayam was started at Srisailam. SriPaada Sri Vallabha came to Srisailam, he reinstalled Surya Bhagwan Shakthi in Mallikarjun Swamy Lingam.
Sri Nrisimha Saraswathi
According to Datta tradition Nrisimha Saraswathi (SreeGuru) came for darshan and left his physical body at the bacnks of reiver Krishna (Kadali Vanam) at Srisilam and from the same place Akkalakot Maharaj came into being.
Sri Krishna Devaraya
There are historical proofs to prove that Hari Hara Raayulu and Sri Krishna Devaraya came to Srisailam.
Sri Vaasudeva Balwanta Phatke
Freedom fighter Sri Vaasudeva Balwanta Phatke came to Srisialam.
Sree Shivaji Maharaj Visit & Formation of Sree Shivaji Memorial Committee
In the year 1677, Sree Shivaji Maharaj visited the Srisailam temple after or during his southern expeditions and prayed mother Bhavani in the dhyana Mandir built for him by his followers. And the legend has it that the mother was pleased with Sree Shivaji maharaj and blessed him with a sword to protect Sanatan Dharma.
In the year 1974, the tri-centenary celebrations of Sree Shivaji maharaj’s coronation as “Chatrapati” were celebrated across the country. At this time veteran social worker, historian and senior RSS leader, Sri Moreshwar Nilakanth Pingale, popularly known as Moropant ji along with Sri V. Ramamohana Rao, then editor of Jagruthi, a telugu weekly visited the Dhyan Mandir where Sree Shivaji performed Tapas. The Dhyan Mandir was in a dilapidated state and in need of urgent renovation. They then decided that a suitable memorial should be built in the place to commemorate Sree Shivaji Maharaj’s performance of tapas. The memorial is to serve as a centre of inspiration of spirit of Sree Shivaji maharaj and aptly termed as “Sree Shivaji Spoorthi Kendra”.
In order to enable overseeing all activities of the memorial, a committee viz. Sree Shivaji Memorial committee was formed and registered in the year 1975. The memorial was conceived to be on the lines of “Vivekananda Rock Memorial”, at Kanyakumari. It was designed by Sri Ganapathi Stapathi, the principal of college of architecture and sculpture, Mahabalipuram (TAMILNADU) and was blessed by Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swami of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham.
AP endowments department gave an area of 10,233 Sq. Ft of land on a 99 year lease to the Sri Sree Shivaji Memorial committee. Bhumi puja was performed in 1983 by Sri Vasant Dada Patil, the then chief minister of Maharastra.
Present status of the memorialThe memorial consists of a hall with an area of 7500 Sq. ft., in the ground floor named as “Samarth Sabha Mandapam” and the first floor called as ‘Darbar Hall” with an area of 10,000 Sq.Ft.
A bronze statue of Sree Chatrapati Shivaji maharaj is installed in the hall on a 4 ft. pedestal.
