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Choundesvara Temple, Kondaparti

A temple of Choundesvara and a tank, the Chaunda-samudra, at Kondaparti near Warangal. Both were built by Chaunda of the Malyala family, a general of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. His inscription there of 1203 records his part in Ganapatideva's conquest of the Divi island.

A pillared stone hall with a flat roof and wide eaves on a platform, steps leading to a central doorway, many stones painted with numbers.
A pillared stone hall with a flat roof and wide eaves on a platform, steps leading to a central doorway, many stones painted with numbers. · P. Madhusudan (opens in a new tab) · CC0 (opens in a new tab)

Kondaparti lies about 12 km from Warangal.1 S. Gopalakrishna Murthy, writing in 1964, records that Chaunda, a general of Ganapatideva, dug a tank at Kondaparti, south of Hanamkonda.23 Chaunda also built a temple of Choundesvara there in 1203.23

Murthy describes the temple as built on the plan of the thousand-pillared temples.23 It has carving on its pilasters and three door-keeper figures on either side of the shrine door.23 He noted a broken figure of Sarasvati dancing on her swan.23 Near the bund (embankment) of the tank, which he calls Choundasamudram, stands a two-armed Ganesha.3

Chaunda and his inscription

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry (1978) names the tank Chaunda-samudra and its builder Chaunda-senapati, commander of Ganapatideva’s armies.1 Chaunda’s wife Mailama dug another tank, at Katakuru in Karimnagar district.1 The Malyala chiefs, to whom Chaunda belonged, are known mainly from the Kondaparti records and from Mailama’s Katakuru inscription. According to the family history in the Kondaparti inscription, the family descended from Dannaya.45 Dannaya’s grandson Kata commanded Rudradeva’s armies.45 The inscription of 1203 describes how the Kakatiya army plundered the Divi island at the mouth of the Krishna and enriched Ganapatideva’s treasury with its diamonds. Sastry gives Chaunda the chief credit for this campaign.65 For it the king gave him a title for the conquest of the island.65 See the Kondaparti inscription of Malyala Chaunda.

Footnotes

  1. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 206 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. S. Gopalakrishna Murthy, The Sculpture of the Kakatiyas (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series 34, n.d.; preface dated 1964), p. 20 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Gopalakrishna Murthy, The Sculpture of the Kakatiyas (n.d.; preface dated 1964), p. 21 and fig. 13 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 149 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  5. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 150 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 107 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

Photos

References

Sources (2)
  1. S. Gopalakrishna Murthy (general editor Mohd. Abdul Waheed Khan), The Sculpture of the Kakatiyas (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series No. 34) (opens in a new tab), Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad (printed at the A. P. Text-Book Press), 1964, pp. 20–21, fig. 13. Public domain in India; paraphrased. [Cited, not reproduced]
  2. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1978, pp. 107, 149–150, 206. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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