18. Simhachelam Temple. 
By 8S. P. V. RAmAnusaswamt, Vizagapatam. 
temples. But nothing is said about Simhachelam. 
Simhachelam (lit. the lion-hill) which rises to about 800 
feet above the sea, stands 6 miles north of Vizagapatam. 
Near the top of the north side of it, in a wooded hollow, 
that of a lion. In the inscriptions found in the temple, the 
god is referred to as Y agnavaraha and Simhadrinatha.* It 
is perhaps this latter epithet that led many into the wrong 
notion and that is also responsible for the popular tradition 
that the god is Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha. Simhadrinatha 
used in the inscriptions as an epithet of Yagfiavaraha simply 
means that the god is ‘‘ the owner or master of Simhadri or 
lion-hill.”’ The hill is called the “lion-hill”’ not on account of 
the fact that Narasimha is upon it, but owing to its fancied 
resemblance to a lion—the hill is broad at either end and 
slender in the middle. If the temple of a god is situated on 
the summit of a hill, it is usual to name the god after the hill 
and not vice versd.2 So the real god at Simhachelam is 
VaRinA or YAGNAVARAHA, and since the hill is called Simha- 
chelam or Simhadri, he is referred to a Simhadrinatha. More- 

1 cf. W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, and Mr. Francis, 
Vizagapatam Gazetteer. 
® He is also sometimes referred to as Narasimha. But this I think 
is through mistake, as the image possesses @ TAIL. But why should a 
Varaha image possess the tail of a lion ? i 
8 e.g. the god at Tirupati is called Seshadrinatha because the hill is 
called the Seshadri (serpent-hill). The god at Conjeevaram is called 
Hastigirinatha, because the hill on which the temple of the god is 
situated is called Hastigiri (elephant-hill). Similarly with the god at 
Jagannatham or Piri. 
