Ramappa Temple
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How it came to be
The Rudreshwara Temple, known as the Ramappa Temple, stands in the village of Palampet in Telangana, about 200 km north-east of Hyderabad. It is the main Shiva temple of a walled complex built under the Kakatiya dynasty (1123 to 1323). The Kakatiya general Recharla Rudra began it in 1213, and the work took about 40 years.
The temple is built of sandstone, with beams and pillars carved from granite and dolerite. Its tower, the vimana, was built of porous bricks light enough to float, which reduced the weight on the roof, and its foundation was packed with sand against earthquakes. The bracket figures of dancers called madanikas and the mythical gaja-vyalas, carved from hard dolerite, still keep a metal-like polish.
The temple sits at the foot of a forest beside Ramappa Cheruvu, a reservoir built by the Kakatiyas. After the dynasty fell in the 14th century it was left untended and overgrown. It was declared a protected monument in 1914, and in 1916 Ghulam Yazdani of the Hyderabad Archaeological Department began surveying and repairing it. It was inscribed in 2021.
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