TEMPLE HISTORY

History of the Temple : It is believed that this temple was constructed in the 12^th century, i.e Chola period. During that period the temples were controlled by Mutts, so also this temple was controlled by the Brahmatantra Swatantra Parakala Mutt, Mysore. The present Sira area was ruled by Muslim rulers and was known as ‘Ratnagiri Samsthanam’.

Subsequently, the temple was handed over by The Parakala Mutt to Sri Vaishnavas belonging to Ratnagiri. The temple was consecrated by none other than Shri Yamanacharya, also popularly called Alavandar, a Vishistadwaitha philosopher of Srirangam. He was the grand-acharya of Ramanujacharya.

The temple is being looked after from past 900 years by a group of Srivaishnava families spread over Karnataka - Andhra border areas, like Ratnagiri, Ayyavaripalli, Dhramavaram, Rallapalli, Varala, sakkare patnam, Banavaranam, doddabele, Sugganahalli, Chanpalli, etc. The temple thus clearly establishes a common link to all these families.

No information is available for 700 years of the existence of the temple, on the priests and family members in charge of the temple activities. In the 18^th century the temple was looked after by two families, i.e Suggenahalli Ramachar ( Sr ) and Varala Venkatakrishnamacharlu. Next the temple was looked after by Sri Puranam Gopalacharlu, son of Ramachar and Varala Achrya Purusha Gopalacharlu, who was incharge of all yadav devotees and to collect ‘shishya sanchara’ and donations to manage the temple.

There after the temple has been looked after by the direct descendants of these two families. Currently the temple is looked after by T V Ravindra of the Varala family and Sri Chakrapani is the chief priest.