Temples of Nagulapadu

Nagulapadu lies on the east bank of the Musi river, 16 miles south of Suryapet in the old Nalgonda district.¹ Henry Cousens’s list of 1900 recorded there “three ruined shrines which have been highly sculptured”.² Telugu inscriptions were said to be on the pillars, and there was a ruined mosque.²

G. Yazdani surveyed the place in 1926–27.³ He found that it must once have been an important town, defended by a high mud wall.³ The remains of the wall still stood on the north and west.³ But the town was then almost deserted, with fourteen huts.³ Its two temples stand close together, with a small mosque between them.³ Yazdani called them “veritable gems of Mediaeval Deccan architecture”.³

The northern temple

The temple north of the mosque stands on a high platform, with flights of seven steps on the north, east and west.⁴ It has porches on the same three sides.⁴ When Yazdani saw it, the roofs of the porches and the hall had fallen.⁴ But the ante-chamber and shrine at the western end were whole, with carvings that included a pierced screen of yali figures (lion-like beasts).⁴

Inscribed tablets are fixed on either side of the ante-chamber door.⁴ In Yazdani’s reading they record the building of the temple “during the reign of Ganapatideva by one Recherla Kamereddi in Saka 1180 (1258 A.C.)”.⁴ The outer walls of the shrine are divided into an endless series of projecting pilasters.⁴ He admired them as “a splendid exhibition of the sculpture of the period (13th century A.C.), which is characterized by a joyous exuberance of fancy”.⁴

The southern temple

The temple south of the mosque has a lower plinth and an uncarved outside, and Yazdani thought it was never finished.⁴ It has an east-facing porch, a hall and three shrines.⁴ The fallen roof slabs of the porch are carved with gods riding their mounts.⁴ There are also Shiva with Nandi among rows of men and women, and warriors with clubs and maces.⁴

The pillars and ceiling of the hall are of black stone.⁴ They carry floral and architectural designs and scenes from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Puranas.⁴ One beam shows a line of chariots drawn by small ponies, carrying archers in action.⁵ Yazdani thought the carving crude, but valuable for what it shows of warfare.⁴⁵

There are three inscriptions in this temple.⁵ One, dated Saka 1156 (1234 CE; Saka is an Indian way of counting years), names the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva “as the ruler of the Earth”.⁵ The other two are later and record a grant by Recherla Katreddi.⁵ Yazdani described Katreddi as a descendant of the Namireddi of the Pillalamarri inscriptions.⁵

A pillar of black basalt in front of the two temples carries an inscription naming Prataparudradeva and dated Saka 1225 (1303 CE).⁵ The department published ground plans of both temples in its report for 1927–28.⁶

The Recherla family at Nagulapadu

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, writing in 1978, says that later members of the Recherla family settled at Nagulapadu and built temples and tanks there.⁷ This was the line that built the temples at Pillalamarri.⁷ He counts the Nagulapadu temples among the best-known temples of the Kakatiya period.⁸

S. Gopalakrishna Murthy, writing in 1964, dated the building differently.⁹⁴⁵ He says that Recherla Katreddi built a thousand-pillared temple at Nagulapadu in 1234, the year of the earliest inscription.⁹⁴⁵ But Yazdani had read the 1234 record as naming only the king, and Katreddi’s grants as later.⁹⁴⁵ The date of building that Yazdani read on a tablet, 1258, is on the other temple.⁹⁴⁵

Murthy saw the carving of the outer walls of the shrine at Nagulapadu as the high point of decorative sculpture on Kakatiya temples.⁹ He found the figures on the door frames stiff, though.⁹

Footnotes

1. G. Yazdani (Director), Annual Report of the Archaeological Department of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, 1336 F. (1926–27) (1929), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

2. Henry Cousens, Lists of Antiquarian Remains in His Highness the Nizam’s Territories (1900), p. 53 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

3. Yazdani, Annual Report … 1926–27 (1929), p. 4 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Yazdani, Annual Report … 1926–27 (1929), p. 5 and Plates VIII–IX (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

5. Yazdani, Annual Report … 1926–27 (1929), p. 6 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

6. Annual Report of the Archaeological Department of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, 1927–28 (1929), list of plates and Plate II (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 145 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

8. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 282 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

9. S. Gopalakrishna Murthy, The Sculpture of the Kakatiyas (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series 34, n.d.; preface dated 1964), p. 28 and fig. 30 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Public domain in India; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶