Sita Ramachandraswamy Temple (Bhadrachalam)

Known as ‘Dakshina Ayodhya’ (the Southern Ayodhya), Bhadrachalam enshrines Rama in the rare four-armed Vaikuntha Rama form, an iconography found almost nowhere else in India, alongside Sita and Lakshmana. Tradition holds the site is named for the devotee Bhadra, whose long penance on the Godravari’s bank was rewarded when Rama appeared before him. The temple’s present form dates to the mid-to-late 17th century, built through the efforts of Kancharla Gopanna (better known as Bhadrachala Ramadasu), a revenue official under the Qutb Shahi ruler of Golconda who diverted government tax funds to the temple’s construction; he was imprisoned for roughly twelve years as a result, until — per temple legend — Rama and Lakshmana themselves appeared to the ruler and repaid the debt in gold, securing Gopanna’s release. Ramadasu’s devotional compositions remain widely sung in Telugu Vaishnava tradition, and the temple is counted among the Godavari’s Divya Kshetrams.