V. Prakara (The outer wall)
Designed by sculptors of the Vijayanagra dynasty between 1400-1530, the bas-relief sculptures on the outer wall (prakara) at Lord Mallikarjuna temple in Srisailam are beautiful as works of art. A rich world of stories where ecology, religion, and politics meet, hundreds of individual panels illustrate mythological tales of Shiva and his devotees, ascetic practices, and the frontier between forest and civilization.
Buffalo and tiger, East wall
Detail: Kshira sagara ("ocean of milk"), South wall
For a thousand years, the demons (left) and the gods (right) churned the ocean to release the nectar of immortality (amrita). To do so, they wrapped a celestial serpent around a mountain placed on the back of a giant tortoise (an avatar of Lord Vishnu) and rotated the mountain by alternately pulling on the head and tail of the serpent. This churning first released a toxic poison that threatened to destroy everything in the universe. All the gods and demons begged Lord Shiva for protection - taking pity on them, he swallowed the poison which began to descend his throat. Alarmed, his wife, the Goddess Parvati, stopped the poison from entering his body, trapping the toxic blue liquid in his neck forever.
The demons and gods returned to churning the ocean, releasing the moon amid other treasures, before the nectar of immortality finally arose. Lord Vishnu, disguised as a beautiful woman, tricks the demons into surrendering the amrita to the gods, giving them eternal life. This origin story may be an ancient explanation of the appearance of our "Milky way" galaxy, a white spiral of stars wrapped around a dark center.