There are few interesting facts that are associated with the family of the King, Sibi chakravarthy ! He was a ruler of Kashmir. He is claimed to be the ancestor of the southern kingdoms of Chola and Pandiyas and Cheras! The name Sembian is said to have come about after the King Sibi! He is the son of Mandhata and grandson of Yayati the Yadu clan King! The princess of this clan is kunti who is given in marriage to Pandu! This is how Lord Krishna is related to Pandavas! And through them to Kauravas! Yayati is revered by Buddhists as a previous incarnation of Buddha! This is clear through Jataka tales! Sibi is said to have had two brothers called Mehadhambara and Jeemutavahana. Of these two brothers Mehadambara asks Yayati’s permission to go on a pilgrimage and proceeds towards south India and reaches a place called Chejarla near Nasaraopet in Guntur district! There is a hill called Devarakonda where many rishis were doing tapasya meditating on Lord Siva! and upon seeing them he also relinquished his desires and attained Samadhi and later his mortal remains turned into an image of Lord Siva himself as a Linga! The Lord was called Mehadambareswara! The retinue that had followed the King reached Kashmir back and informed the King Sibi about what happened, and this episode saddened the King, and it was then his another brother Jeemutavahana volunteered to go to the same place and find out the facts, to this the King Sibi said that he could also take a huge retinue of armed men with him for protection! So the Jeemutavahana reached the place and witnessessed for himself the glory of his brother, and felt that there is no point in returning to the Kingdom and felt the need to meditate upon the Lord, he too meditated and attained Samadhi soon got absorbed into the divinity! This place is called Cheram Choral! Jeemutavahana’s retinue too went back to Kashmir and informed the king about what had happened! Then the King handing over the administration to his council of ministers, as his son was too young came with a large posse of soldiers to verify the facts himself. He was convinced that the incidents were true and decided to perform hundred yagnas to propitiate the memory of his brothers, and started the performance of these yagnas in right earnest. Soon Indra felt that performing these hundred yagnas would threaten his stature and requested the trinity gods to do something! They agreed and Brahma converted himself as an arrow and Lord Narayana as a pigeon, and Siva as a hunter, as the hunter was chasing the pigeon, it landed on the lap of the King stationed there and sought his protection. Soon he countered the hunter who reasoned that as per his Dharma he should be handed over his target and the king said that whosoever has sought his protection need to be protected and offered his flesh instead and he started cutting his flesh with the sword and weighed it against the bird, but the pan of the bird did not equal. Then he decided to cut his body into half and proceeded, then the trinity gods revealed themselves and blessed him and granted moksham, Lord Siva told him that he would attain his abode and granted him image of his Linga with which he merged! He is called Sri Kapothewara! Cheran Choral has some significance to the three kingdoms of the south Chera Chola and Pandya kingdoms. Gajabhahu sincronism is taken as a most authentic resource for determining the time period of Cholas and Chera kings and according to it, the great grandfather of the Cheras is karikal chola I. Silappatikaram mentions these facts too. The image in the temple at Devarakonda is a marble stone image that has two distinct impressions with a deep cut through which the abisheka theertha disappears and there is said to be a prominent smell of blood and flesh even today while doing abisheka as he was cutting his body at the time of attaining this stature!
