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Kukkuteswara Temple&nbsp;is a&nbsp;Hindu&nbsp;temple in&nbsp;Pitapuram&nbsp;town of&nbsp;Kakinada district,&nbsp;Andhra Pradesh,&nbsp;India. The temple is prominent in both&nbsp;Saivite&nbsp;and&nbsp;Shakta&nbsp;Hindu traditions. It is one of the eighteen&nbsp;Maha Sakthi Peethas&nbsp;considered the most significant pilgrimage destinations in Shaktism.&nbsp;The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Kukkuteswara, a form of Lord Siva as a&nbsp;rooster&nbsp;and his consort Rajarajeswari Devi. 
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The temple of Puruhutika Devi, one of the Maha Shakti Peethas is on the premises of Kukkuteswara Temple. Pithapuram is referred to in the&nbsp;Skanda Purana&nbsp;and in&nbsp;Srinatha&#39;s&nbsp;Bheemeswara Puranamu&nbsp;and also in&nbsp;Samudragupta&#39;s&nbsp;Allahabad stone pillar inscription.

It is the brief history of Paadagaya Kshetram which is one of the important Astadasa Peetha&#39;s, situated at Pithapuram in East Godavari District in andhra Pradesh. It is described in the third chapter of Bheema Khanda and of Shandapurana.Bhima Mandalam consists of Andhra, Orissa border at the foot of the Vindhya Mountains. It is the best piece of land out of nine divisions of land with all kinds of crops and gardens. Pithapuram has become famous as a sacred and holy piligrimage, in this land. Pithapuram is Equally holy and sacred place with &#39;Kedaram&#39; in North-India and &#39;Kumbhakonam&#39; in South-India.

This place was visited by the Sage Vyasa with his disciples and it was written in Bhimakhanda of Skandapurana, one of the eighteen epics.

The great poet, &#39;Srinadha&#39; wrote in the third chapter of &#39;Bheemeswara purana&#39; inthe following way. &quot;The following four places give salvation or &#39;Moksha, they are(banaras), Varanasi, Kedaram, Kumbhakonam and Pithapuram(kukkuteswara stanamu) Pithapuram has become Paadagaya Keshetram. In olden days, KRUTAYUGA there was a demon king, Gayasura, By his austere penance and sacrifice he got kingship on heaven and ruled the three lokas (Swarga, Marthya, Patalam).

He was ruling three lokas by the result of sacrifices made by sages. Defeated by Gayasura Lord Indra and others deities approached Trimurthies (Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara) for Restoration of their position. Trimuthies in the guise of brahmins visited Gayasura.

Gayasura used to fulfill the desires of the people who asked him by virtue of his kind and charitable qualities. By his mere visit, even sinners used to get rid of their sins and reached heaven.Gayasura received them warmly and worshipped with utter respect, (Arghya and Padya) and received their blessing. He asked them to tell the cause of their arrival. Then they told to offer a sacred place to perform the sacrifice. He promised to provide the place. They asked to give his body as it was a holy place to perform the sacrifice. He agreed for it.&nbsp;

They gathered material, sages and deities and requested Gayasura to commence yaaga (Sacrifice). The Gayasura extended his body from Gaya in Bihar State to pithapuram in Andhra State and asked them to start sacrifice (yaaga)They started yaaga on his chest. Yaaga was intended to finish in seven days, counting everyday, from early in the morning (i.e. cock crowing time).

After six days, the deities prayed to lord Eswara to spoil the Yaaga. Then lord Eswara in the Form of a Cock at midnight (lingodhbhava kala), (Before early in the morning) sounded &quot;Kokkuroko,&quot; Gayasura thought that the Yaaga was over and moved his body. Then they were ready to kill Gayasura as he spoiled their sacrifice.

Gayasura accepted for this. By pleasing with the words of Gayasura, they asked him to request them a boon. Then Gayasura told them that he had no personal desires. But for the benefit of the world, he requested Vishnu to be at his head, at naval cavity Brahma, and at feet Eswara in the form of Cock, permanently. These three places should be treated as holy places and of anybody performed shraddha karmas in these places, their fore Fathers would reach salvations without rebirth.

With that reason lord Vishnu is being Worshipped in the form of Gadadhara in &#39;Gaya&#39; in Bihar even today. Brahma who&#39;s in the form of Girijadevi is receiving prayers by devotees in Nabhigaya which is in Orissa State near Jajipur railway station.

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Legend 1: 
Once Indra has cheated Ahalya (wife of Gautama Maharshi) in the form of Gautama and was cursed by the Maharshi. Indra lost his testes and got the symbols of Yoni all over his body. He felt very sad and prąyed Gautama a lot. Finally, the Rishi accepted and told that the Yoni symbols will look like eyes so that Indra will be called as Sahasraksha thereafter. But Indra lost his testes. He wanted to regain them. He left his kingdom, came to Piithika puri and did Tapasya for Jaganmata. After a long time, Jaganmata appeared before him and blessed him with wealth and testes. Indra was very happy and prąyed her as Puruhutika Devi (One who was worshiped by Indra).

Legend 2: 
As per the Legends, a demon by the name Gayasura who was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu performed strict penance. Lord Vishnu appeared before him and granted his wish that whoever sees him should attain salvation. Gayasura using his spiritual powers started increasing his body size with the intention that everyone on the Earth should attain salvation. Indra, the God of Heaven worried that if everyone attains salvation then there will be an imbalance in the creation and prayed for the Lord&rsquo;s Vishnu, Siva and Brahma seeking a solution. Lord Vishnu, Siva and Brahma transformed themselves as Brahmins and approached Gayasura for Yajna space.They told Gayasura that there are many evil incidents on the Earth so they want to perform Yajna on top of Gayasura body which is holy. Brahmins also told him that this Yajna will run for seven days and you should be strong enough to bear the pain if the conditions are not met then he would be killed.

Gayasura accepted their request and slept by lying down on the Earth, with Head in Siro Gaya (Gaya in Bihar), Navel in Jajapur (Nabi Gaya in Orissa) and his foot in Pithapuram (Padagaya in East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh).Gayasura started counting days on rooster crowing at early hours and on the last day of the Yajna, Siva took the form of a cock and crowed in the midnight. Not knowing the trick Gayasura woke up which disturbed the Yajna. Brahmins accused Gayasura of not sticking to his promise and also told him that, if he can&rsquo;t bear the pain from Yajna for 7 days then how can he absorb the sins of the entire humankind.

Angered Brahmins were ready to kill him, Gayasura ready to offer himself as promised. Impressed Lords before him in their actual form and granted a wish that the place where he laid down would become a holy shrine with Head part to be the Lord Vishnu&rsquo;s holy abode, Lord Brahma at Navel part and Lord Siva at the feet. And also granted a boon that performing Pindapradana will credit their ancestors and attains salvation.

Legend 3: 
Once Goddess Parvathi, Laxmi Devi and Saraswathi wanted to test the loyalty of Anasuya Mata towards her husband and sent Trinity to Earth to test her.Soon Trinity stood in front of Atri&rsquo;s hermitage seeking alms. At that time Atri was not at home so Anasuya took them inside and made them comfortable. When she was getting ready to serve food, they stopped her saying that they cannot accept the food until she serves them in nudity.

Surprised and shocked to know their demand Anasuya mata was in great dilemma whether to give them food or not. But she believed in the words&rdquo; ATHITHI DEVO BHAV&rdquo; which meant guest is equal to God.Immediately she remembered the Lotus feet of her husband and sprinkled water on the three guests and turned them into infants.

She then fed them and made them fall asleep. Meanwhile, Atri returned home after his regular rituals and knew the facts from his wife and understood that they were none other than Brahma, Sri Vishnu &amp; Maheshwara.Knowing about their husbands, Goddess Laxmi, Saraswathi and Parvati Devi came to Atri&rsquo;s hermitage and asked to give their husbands to them. Then on prayers of Atri &amp; Anasuya Trinity took their original forms and blessed them with three sons who bear the power of Trinity.

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