Where rivers meet and faith overflows

• Kaleshwaram, a temple town in Telangana, is a sacred space where the invisible Saraswati meets the mighty Godavari and the Pranahita in a sacred embrace called Triveni Sangamam.

• The event, called Saraswati Pushkaralu, draws pilgrims with an age-old belief that bathing here will cleanse their past sins and lead them closer to spiritual liberation.

• The region is the only place in South India where three rivers converge, observing three Pushkaralu — Godavari, Pranahita, and Saraswati — in their respective cycles.

• The 12-day Saraswati Pushkaralu, which began on May 15, transforms the banks of the Sangamam, resembling a sacred mandala.

• The temple complex, crowned by the Sri Kaleshwara Mukteshwara Swamy shrine, houses two Shivalingas — Lord Kaleshwara (Yama) and Lord Mutteshwara (Shiva) — on a single pedestal.

• The Kaleshwara lingam is believed to free those who worship the Kaleshwara lingam from the torments of Yamaloka, while those who worship Mukteshwara are granted spiritual liberation.

• Two powerful rituals — Kalasarpadosha Nivarajana Puja and Navagraha Puja — draw the devout in hordes, for many, these are spiritual interventions to untangle karmic knots and appease planetary forces believed to influence human destiny.

• The Mukteshwara Swamy lingam has two nostrils, believed to be the emergence point of the Saraswati river, which later merges with the other two at the Triveni Sangamam.

• The temple’s origins are attributed to Gangadhar, a minister of Kakatiya king Rudradeva, according to a 1171 CE inscription found at Nagunur.

• The town’s growth has been shaped by the arrival of bus services in 1976 and road projects in the 1980s, with former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao serving on the temple renovation committee.

Kaleshwaram’s Spiritual Tourism and Infrastructure

• The district administration has increased efforts to facilitate the Pushkaralu festival, doubling personnel, improving signage, and deploying traffic monitors.

• IT and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy have praised the state’s efforts in organizing the event.

• The State has allocated ₹40 crore for the festival and promised an additional ₹200 crore to develop Kaleshwaram into a major spiritual tourism hub.

• A 17-foot statue of Saraswati, carved from a single stone by Tamil Nadu artisans, stands at the Saraswati ghat.

• Security measures include over 3,500 police personnel, nearly 200 CCTV cameras, and drones, and the National Disaster Response Force and Singareni Collieries’ rescue teams on standby.

• A helicopter joyride over Kaleshwaram offers a bird’s eye view of the temple complex, the lush landscape, and the riverine confluence that holds generations of faith.

• The festival serves as a reminder to protect the rivers that sustain us, honoring their self-purifying power and allowing them to flow freely for generations to come.

• Tourism enthusiasts suggest eco-tourism circuits linking Wadadham Fossil Park in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district with Ramappa Temple and Laknavaram Island in neighbouring Mulugu district.