Nagarjunakonda

There are a number of tourist places in Nagarjunakonda. Nagarjunakonda is located on 150 kilometrs from the southeast side of Hyderabad city. It is one of India's very famous and rich Buddhist sites. It now days lies entirely under the lake created by the Nagarjunasagar Dam, completed in 1960s.

Nagarjuna Sagar

Vijayapuri was served as a capital of the Ikshvaku kingdom and was best centre of Buddhist learning seventeen hundred years ago. Now there is a place flourishes named Nagarjunasagar, it is a famous township and get its name after Acharya Nagarjuna, who was the founder and father of Mahayana Buddhism.

Nagarjunakonda may be named after Nagarjuna, it is the revered Buddhist monk, who governed the sangha that is Buddhist monastery. Here many relics of the Buddhist civilization found since the 3rd century AD. The very old relics at the site were discovered by archaeologist A. R. Saraswathi.

In the year 1950 the region was selected as the site for a huge tank, called as the Nagarjuna Sagar, for the purpose of irrigation and the generation of electricity. The excavated relics were rebuild and have been carefully conserved at Nagarjunakonda, a unique island-museum in the midst of the man-made Nagarjunasagar Lake.

The museum has been created in the figure of a Buddhist Vihara and accommodates a stupendous collection of relics of Buddha, Buddhist art and culture. The main stupa named the Mahachaitya includes the holy relics of Buddha.

The centre of attraction is a partially broken monolithic statue of Buddha in an exceptional image of peace and poise. During the building of the Nagarjunasagar Dam, the remains of an prehistoric Buddhist university were unearthed in it.

It has been rebuild at Anupu, 4 kilometers away from the right bank of the reservoir. A third century vihara and amphitheatre with fine acoustics takes one back into history. The Nagarjunasagar Dam project, completed in 1966, is one of the largest in India and its two of the irrigation tunnels are said to be among the longest in the world.

How to reach here:

• By Air - The nearest airport is, Hyderabad at a distance of 149 kilometrs.
• By Rail - The nearest railhead is Macherla which is 29 from Nagarjuna Sagar.
• By Bus - It is well connected by state buses from Macherla, Hyderabad, Warangal, Vijayawada.