There are two temples of Lord Narasimha at the Shobanadri hill in Andhra Pradesh, one at the foot of the hill and one on top, which is reached after climbing about 700 steps.
The temple at the foot of the hill contains the deities of Sri Sri Lakshmi Narasimha. There are also small temples for Yogananda Lakshmi Narasimha, Rajya lakshmi, and the great Sri Vaishnavi lady Alwar and saint known as Andal.
The temple at the top of the hill contains the deity known as Shobanachalswami Narasimha. He is said to be a self-manifested deity who appeared on a boulder inside the inner sanctum of the temple. This deity has the mouth of a tiger and the body of a man-lion. There is an interesting story regarding the origin of the present Shobanachalswami temple.
It is said that in a nearby village known as Viravalli there was a vaisava named Gopayacharyulu. He had a dream in which the Lord told him that his form of Narasimha in a temple on top of Shobanadri hill was long neglected and that he should find that temple and reinstate the worship there. Gopayacharyulu took a large number of people with him and they searched on top of the hill. While they were searching for the deity, they came face to face with a large tiger, who slowly retreated into a cave on the hill. Gopayacharyulu boldly entered the cave and in great happiness found the deity of the Lord.
After some years, when Gopayacharyulu became too old to continue the worship of the deity, he turned it over to his son Shobanacharya. It is said that Shobanacharya became a great scholar after the Lord personally inscribed the bijaksaras, seed letters of the alphabet, on his tongue. Shobanacharya became a well-known poet, and one of his books is called Shobanachala-shatakam.
Once, Shobanacharya approached the Muslim Nawab of Hyderabad for money to renovate the temple. The Nawab became angry and told Shobanacharya to show his god to the Nawab, and that if he failed to do so the Nawab would have him trampled to death. Shobanacharya accepted this challenge. He prepared some pure butter mixed with sugar and prayed to Lord Narasimha to kindly accept it. It is said that the Lord appeared in the form of a tiger and took the butter from the hands of Shobanacharya in the presence of a crowd of onlookers. The Nawab was stupefied and granted the Agiripalli village as an endowment for the maintenance of the temple.
Narasimhadev Bhagavan ki Jai.....
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