THOUSAND PILLARED TEMPLE

Among the most celebrated temples built by Kakatiyas the temple complex locally known as Veyistambhalagudi, the thousand pillared temple (18°00’N; 79°35’E) was perhaps the earliest. According to an inscription the complex was raised by Kakatiya Rudra Deva-I (1162-63 C.E) and enshrines Rudresvara, Vasudeva and Surya images. It is thus a triple shrine. The main deities are arranged in square sanctums fronted by an antarala leading to a common rangamandapa or natya-mandapa with long portico entrance at the south. Between the temple and the portico is a plain pavilion housing a huge Nandi now open to sky. The temple is reared on a star-shaped jagati. The roof is semi-flattish. South of this trikuta and falling in the same line is a splendid edifice a hall of columns, nearly 300 in number. The temple contains fine examples of Natya Siva, besides images of Surya, Narasimha, astadikpalakas, etc. The door-sakhas and lintels here (also the ruins at Warangal) contain some of the finest relief figures, besides nidhis and dvarapalas, Nritya Ganesa. Tandava-Narasimha and Indra on Airavata. A remarkable balustrade sculpture from a ruined mandapa symbolizes the great queen Rudrambadevi, shown on lion trampling elephant like enemies (daya-gajakesari); a window screen (bhadravalokana) characteristic of the Kakatiya lapidary art. The pillar inscription of the time of Rudra Deva-I is at the eastern torana entrance of the prakara by the side of a stepped tank which served as a pushkarini. The epigraph gives a graphic description of Hanumakonda, its learned scholars and damsels of this beautiful city. To the students of Art History, this inscription of the time of Rudradeva (1163 C.E) represents a graphic and conventional account of the city, its colourful life and environs.

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