Warangal

I wanted to go to Warangal and Siddipet in this trip. Siddipet to see a public meeting of the man I hate – KCR - and to Warangal to see ‘Kakatiyula keerthi toranalu’. I could not go to Siddipet but made it to Warangal, along with my uncle.

We borrowed a car - new Maruthi swift – and hired a driver. The driver promised to come at 5:30 but came at 7 am. We wanted to reach the 1000 pillar temple before noon but end up reaching there around 11.

The temple is very impressive, but not what I expected. It was not as huge as I imagined it. It seems there are 1000 pillars but there is only a very tiny gap between each pillar. In other words, the walls we see are made up of those pillars.

Inside the temple, we can see four huge black granite pillars with wonderful carvings. Temple has shrines of Siva, Vishnu and Surya. The gods are still worshiped in the temple. Even on a Saturday afternoon, it was impossible for me to get a picture without people in the frame.

Kakatiya kings were Telugu kings, the script on the stones, do not look like modern Telugu, and it looks like some characters are of another Dravidian language.



Another impressive monument of Kakatiyas is their fort – actually ruins of the fort.

The entrance of the fort has a very huge door and the road goes in a zig zag fashion for the next 4 km. There are several houses inside the fort walls and it is thickly populated area. Some places inside the fort walls are used as playgrounds by local kids. On one of the boards in Telugu the name ‘Venis’ city is written as ‘Venin’ city. My uncle observed that typo and brought to the attention of the ASI officer there, who first did not see where that type was and after seeing, he corrected it immediately and said, “Yes, I noticed it yesterday and wanted to fix”.

Except the ‘keerthi thoranaalu’ on four sides, every other pillar is on the floor. We can see wonderful artwork on the many pillars. On some, they sculpt the army that was going for war; we can see several elephants, soldiers holding swards etc. On some pillars, it is the dancers in various Bhangimas. By observing, the artwork on the pillars we can learn a lot about the period’s social life. However, due to our utter disregard for our past treasures, this place is being treated like a park, where people come and play ball games; make their kids sit on the sculptures, eat, spit and do much more.

The funniest thing was this, my uncle asked the ASI employee about the location of urinals. The employee pointed to a place several 100 feet away and said, “If it is for men, they need not go that far too…”. I thought, if an employee of the Archeological Society of India is saying that, what is the point in me being upset about the thoughtless parent who is making their kids sit on the elephant sculptures there.

If I have the power and money, I would like to see this place renovated and maintained with people in period costumes, similar to how Americans maintain their historical sites.

Then a trip to this site would serve as a crash course for the history of Telugu nation.

Ramappa temple is located 70 KM from the fort.

The drive up to the 40 KM from Warangal is on a proper road, after that it is just a mud road. The temple is located in the agency area of Eturi Naagaaram. There are few police check posts on the way.

We can get a glimpse of the life of rural India on the way; the bullock carts carrying grass and paddy. Green open fields, people riding bicycle on the road, people sitting under banyan tree with cigars in their mouths, old men sitting on the cots in front of the house, groups of woman sitting in front of the house talking, washing dishes, chicken and goats running around the huts etc. It is a pleasent ride – particularly if you are not the owner of the car.




Ramappa temple has very impressive artwork; particularly the idols of Nagini, Rambha on the black stone on the walls are done with wonderful taste. By 4 pm the light from the west side – back end of the – temple becomes angular creating impressive shadows.



Due to time constraints we could not stay there for long, ideally one should spend a night nearby and visit the temple in the early hours and late hours to record the true beauty of the construction. Next time I plan to do that.

This is the side view of the temple -

The original sasanam - thou the language used is the Telugu, the script on this scripture has very little resemblence to the modern Telugu script.

***