An Appeal to Brahmin community

Palakol is the one of the Pancharama Siva Kshetras.. It is the abode of lord Ksheera Ramalingeswara since the ages of puranas. The local Brahmin community constructed Sankaramatt here some six decades back. It is said that the Siva lingam originated from Kasi kshetra. The matt originally constituted of a small room with a idol of Jagadguru Sri Sankaracharya, linga of Kasi Visweswara Swamy and his consort Annapurnaa Devi. It is situated at Kodigattu, Palakol.

Initially Nitya pujas and other religious activities were performed regularly. Soon the matt was neglected and forgotten. For many years it was locked up. Subsequently it was handed over to Ksheerapuri Brahmana Seva Sangham in early 90's. Some enthusiastic Brahmins celebrated occasional rituals like Vinayakachaviti, Sankara Jayanthi and Guru Poornima.

In order to revive and encourage fellowship among community members Brahmins started weekly meetings in early 2000. It is decided to rebuild the matt with donations collected from only Brahmin community. A team of likeminded persons mostly employees in various organizations constituted a committee under the leader ship of Sri Peddibhotla Lakshminarayana, a well known Income tax practitioner and the President for A P State Brahmin Seva Sangham was formed in the year 2003. The committee took over the matt in a collapsed condition.

The original plan was to remove the depleted room and keep the idols in a roofed shed with a budget of Rs: 25,000. With lord Kasi Visweswara's grace and benevolence it turned out to be much bigger project with a budget of more than Rs. 7.5 lakhs. Many Brahmins came forward with their contributions either in cash or in kind. In October 2003 Jeernodharana was performed according to agama sastra. Matt was totally dismantled and Bhoomipuja was performed in November 2003. The committee was very keen to reopen the matt by Mahasivaratri of 2004.

With the blessings of Siva, the construction activities went on well and within scheduled time. Vigraha Pratishta was done on 14th Feb 2004. Since then the matt is open to public irrespective of cast or creed. In order to meet regular expenses incurred in nitya puja vidhis and other rituals a Masasivaratri Gotra Sahita Abhisheka scheme is introduced. The matt is run successfully from then onwards.

So far the committee spent nearly Rs 6.0 lakhs. The committee till date received donations worth Rs 4.0lakhs. The committee as on to day has a deficit of Rs.2.0lakhs. The deficit is temporarily met with interest free loans. Still much work is pending. The committee appeals to the benevolent Brahmin devotees to come forward with their valuable contributions to finish the proposed works and to start a corpus fund.