WARANGAL TEMPLE RUINS ... ANDHRA PRADESH

Q. WHAT WAS ISLAMIC INVADERS CONTRIBUTION TO HINDU CULTURES ?
A. EVIDENT HERE .... !!!

WARANGAL TEMPLE RUINS ... ANDHRA PRADESH
Gateway & part of temple ruins @ Warangal
Unknown Photographer .....Date: 1875

Photograph of the gateway and temple ruins at Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, from the Lee-Warner Collection: 'Bombay Presidency. William Lee Warner C.S.', taken by an unkown photographer in the 1870s.

Warangal was the capital of the Kakatiya rulers in the 12th-13th centuries and together with Hanamkonda nearby, they were important political and artistic centres of the eastern Deccan. The circular city of Warangal was founded in the 12th century by the Kakatiya ruler Ganapatideva and was occupied by the Muslims in later times. There are two concentric circles of fortifications. The outer circuit is an earthern rampart entered through four arched gateways. The inner circuit is of stone and has four gateways. In the centre of the city there is a ruined temple dedicated to Shiva Svayambhu and another smaller one also dedicated to Shiva which dates from 14th century.

The Thousand Pillar Temple was built during the period of the Kakatiya dynasty, probably in 1163 CE by order of the then king, Rudra Deva. It stands out to be a masterpiece and achieved major heights in terms of architectural skills by the ancient Kakatiya vishwakarma sthapathis.

It was destroyed by the Tughlaq dynasty during their invasion of the Deccan. It consists one temple and other buildings. There were 1,000 pillars in the structures, but no pillar obstructs a person in any point of the temple to see the god in the other temple.

Modern engineers have removed all the pillars. After they lifted all the pillars they encountered a huge mass of sand. It took nearly two weeks for them to take away all the sand. It was wet sand, because of a pipe connection from the nearby water body named Bhadrakali Cheruvu.

The Thousand Pillar Temple with its ruins lies near the Hanamkonda-Warangal Highway in Telangana State, about 150 kilometres (93 mi) from the city of Hyderabad.

The temple is star-shaped with several shrines and lingams. There are three shrines inside the temple called the Trikutalayam, dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Surya. The temple is surrounded by a big garden in which many small lingam shrines can be seen. There is a carving of a Nandi bull in the form of a highly-polished black basalt monolith.

The Thousand Pillar Temple is constructed on a platform that is raised to a height of 1 metre (3.3 ft) from ground level. Rock-cut elephants and perforated screens in the temple are characteristic of the then prevailing dynasty. Many pilgrims visit. It is also a popular location for shooting films. The Kakatiya festival is held here.

The temple was renovated in 2004 by the Government of India.