Nagarjuna Sagar - Blog by Harshith

Hi Readers,

I am Harshith. In my Dussehra vacation I visited Nagarjuna Sagar with my parents

and grandparents. This trip was for two days and we travelled by our car. I wrote down

the places which we wanted to visit at Nagarjuna Sagar - back -waters,Ethipothala, Nagarjunakonda, Nagarjuna Sagar dam, Pushkar ghat and Anupu.

The clothes you must carry for the 2 days trip are swimsuits, a night pant and shirt, two pairs of daytime dress, and carry the swimsuit when your going to Pushkar ghat. It is best to carry your swimsuit always with you.

We started our trip on 20 October 2018 Saturday, morning at 6:25 AM. We had our breakfast in Udipi hotel which was present in a place named Maal. We also saw a pipe line which was filled with Krishna river from Nagarjuna Sagar. The car trip was exciting because we could see farmlands which were full of greenery, cows were grazing the grass, farmers were watering the crops …. the scenery was wonderful.

We reached Vijay Vihar (Telangana Tourism) in Nagarjuna Sagar by 9:07 AM and booked two rooms in Vijay Vihar. There were 3 blocks. We got the block beside the swimming pool. You should see the view back of the reception as you can see Krishna river.

I got to know from the reception that Nagarjuna Sagar dam is the world’s largest and tallest masonry in the world. It is also one of the earliest multi-purpose irrigation and hydro-electric projects in India as part of green revolution in india. It was inaugurated by Late Prime Minister Shrimati Indira Gandhi.

We continued to cover the places after we took 5 min break to fresh up. We firstly visited Ethipothala. The moment I saw Ethipothala, I was in shock and started admiring the scenario. It was wonderful and amazing. We stayed there for 5 to 10 minutes. Everybody must see that scenery, you will enjoy it a lot… Oops! I forgot to say what is Ethipotala? Look at the picture below..

Don’t you think it’s beautiful?

Ethipothala Falls is a 70 feet (21 m) high river cascade, situated in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Located on the Chandravanka river, which is a tributary of River Krishna joining on its right bank. The waterfall is a combination of three streams namely Chandravanka Vagu, Nakkala Vagu and Tummala Vagu. There is a crocodile breeding centre in the pond formed by the waterfall.

Near the falls, there are steep steps leading to a temples of deity Dattatreya, Madhumati Devi, Sridevi, Bhudevi Sahit Sree Ranganath swami attracts numerous pilgrims who offers prayers. There is a cave which leads to Srisailam and Guttikonda.

We planned to take a boat ride to NagarjunaKonda where you can visit the museum. There are 2 launch site organized by both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Tourism.

It was lunchtime when we reached the telangana launch site and we ordered fish fry and chicken curry to a man who put a tent nearby. The food was very delicious.

We bought the boat and museum tickets for 2:00pm . We waited for few minutes to get on the boat and started to Nagarjuna Konda. It took 1 hour to reach. Once we reached there by 3:30pm, we got to know that the museum will get closed by 4:00pm. So we hurriedly visited the museum and went to see the archaeological sites which was 1 km away from the museum.

The construction of the dam submerged an ancient Buddhist settlement, Nagarjunakonda, which was the capital of the Ikshvaku dynasty in the 1st and 2nd centuries, the successors of the Satavahanas in the Eastern Deccan. Excavations here had yielded 30 Buddhist monasteries, as well as art works and inscriptions of great historical importance. In advance of the reservoir’s flooding, monuments were dug up and relocated.

Some were moved to Nagarjunakonda, now an island in the middle of the reservoir. Now we can see all these in the museum and nearby. Others were moved to the nearby mainland village called Anupu

Megalith: this is the cist burial representing the methods of disposal of dead in pre-christian era. It is marked on the ground by unworked boulders arranged in the circular form.

Below is the pictures of Simhala Vihara:

This monastery evidently meant for the ceylonese monks. It is interesting for its two Apsidal Chaitya grihas and enshrining the image of Buddha and Uddesika Stupas respectively. The Moon stone and decorated pillars of the central mandappa are the notable features.

There are some more interesting sites and a well nearby.

Near the boat entry, it was scenic to view river Krishna and we relaxed for some time till the boat arrived to pick us.

We returned back to launch site by boat and the view of the dam was good to see with lights on in dark night sky.

We went back to our hotel and had our dinner.

Next day, we started early to visit Anupu. Anupu is 16 to 18 kms away from our hotel. Google maps helped us a lot to reach Anupu. In Anupu, there are some Archaeological sites reconstructed as mentioned earlier.

First we visited the University complex: A structure which was identified as University complex by the excavators appears like vihara complex of Buddhist monks with central meditation hall, a stupa and cells. 

Secondly we have visited the amphitheater: this theater was inspired probably by Roman Architecture in ancient India. This place could have been used for sports - wrestling as mentioned in several scripture related to wrestling scenes from Nagarjunakonda.

Top View of Amphitheater

The road straight through Anupu reaches us to Pushkarghat and Fishing sites.

But If you are planning a one day trip then, I would suggest the following:

1. Start early from Hyderabad and plan to reach Nargarjuna Sagar by 8:00 AM

2. Plan to visit the museum by 10:00 AM from Andhra Pradesh Launch site. The whole time taken to complete the trip is of 4 hrs. So you would come back by 2:00 pm.

3. Plan to visit Anupu from there as it is very near.

4. After coming back from Anupu, you can visit waterfall and plan to travel back.