Kalahasti-= Property of Nagarathar siva temple

Here is a story about an old town called Kalahasti....and there is story of Nagarathar behind this siva temple can any guess???...

if you can't we will let you knw the story behind that...

kannappa nayanar Sri Kalahasti Temple - short Story

At Sri Kalahasti, Lord Shiva tested the unshakable devotion of Kanna (Later became Bhaktha Kannappa) before the sages gathered at SriKalahasti. With his divine power, Lord Shiva created a tremor and the roof tops of the temple began to fall. All the sages ran away from the scene except Kannappa who covered the linga with his body to prevent it from any damage.

In another incident, Kannappa plucked out one of his eyes and placed in the eye of Linga which was oozing with blood and tears. When the tears and the blood were still trickling from another eye, Kannappa decided to remove his second eye and placed one of his feet on the spot of the right eye of the Shiva Linga. Before he could pull out his second eye with the arrow, Lord Shiva appeared and restored his eye while granting him a boon to occupy a place close to him.

There is a well know famous temple in this palace called " SRIKALAHASTISWARA SWAMY Temple ".

This is ancient Sri Kalahasti temple dedicated to Lord Siva is one of the five Panchabhootha stalams (temples celebrating Lord Siva as the embodiment of the five primary elements), air (wind) being the element in this case; the other elements being water at (Thiruvanaikaval), fire at (Annamalaiyar Temple), earth at (Ekambareswarar Temple) and space at (Chidambaram Temple) that Siva embodies.

Built by
This temple was originally built during Pallava period and current structures are built by Chola Tamil King Kulothunga Cholan I, II and III during 11th century. A huge hundred pillared mantapam was built by Krishnadevarayar during 16th century, which is another important feature of this shrine.