Ahobilam Holy City

Ahobilam was a pilgrimage town in the Nallamala hills of Andhra Pradesh and the chief centre of worship of Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu. Nine shrines line a steep gorge at Upper Ahobilam, while Lower Ahobilam holds the Prahladavarada temple, dedicated to his mild form. The Tamil saint Thirumangai Alvar praised the place in the ninth-century Periyatirumozhi, and it was counted among the 108 Divya Desams, the Vaishnava holy places.

The Kakatiya and Reddi dynasties patronised the shrines in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, followed by the Vijayanagara kings. Krishnadevaraya came on pilgrimage in the sixteenth century, and the Ahobila Matha monastic seat grew up around the same time.

After the decline of Vijayanagara the temple was sacked in 1579 by Murahari Rao, a commander of the Golconda Sultanate, who carried its jewelled idol away.