Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Andhra Paris

A beautiful town near Guntur City in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, India. Three canals of the Krishna river flow through Tenali making it a part of the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh , resembling paris where three rivers pass through the city . Hence, it is affectionately called Andhra Paris. When Kanchana Mala the first female lead in Telugu movies adorned the screen with charm, people hailed the town saying , the city named Andhra paris is in fact giving freedom to girls as in Paris.
Here one of the famous temple named Ganga Parvatavardhani Sameta Rameswara swami temple is in the middle of the town. Tenali Ramalinga Kavi stayed and donated some vutsava murthi in 16 ad.It is most well known as the hometown of Tenali Ramakrishna (also known as Tenali Rama), the legendary court jester in King Krishnadevaraya's court.Tenali is known for its rich cultural and literary legacy. It has produced many famous poets, actors and educationists. Because of its contribution to literature, stage drama, movies and education, it is called as Andhra Paris.

Tenali has contributed a major share to stage drama industry. There are quite a few extra ordinary artists who later moved on to film industry like Super Star Krishna Kongara Jaggayya, Gummadi Venkateswara Rao, Kanchana Mala and SaradaPresently the Super star of Tollywood Mahesh Babu hails from Tenali, he is son of Krishna.

There are a good number of famous temples like Vaikunthapuram, Kanyaka Parameswari temple, Patha Shivalayam, Patha Anjaneya swamy gudi, Chitti Anjaneya Swami gudi, Morrispet Shivalayam, Saibaba temple next to over bridge, Appala swamy temple etc.