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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Kalahastisvara temple, Srikalahasti

Siva temple of the wind linga at the foot of the southern hill of Srikalahasti. It has Chola inscriptions, and a hundred-pillared hall and great gopura (gate tower) that a Telugu inscription of 1516 credits to Krishnadeva Raya. The North Arcot manual says the Chola kings and Krishnadeva Rayalu extended it. Fergusson's revisers list its wind linga among the Pancha-lingams, the five notable symbols of Siva in southern India.

Colour photograph of a tall whitewashed temple gateway tower with many storeys of sculpture above a busy street.
Colour photograph of a tall whitewashed temple gateway tower with many storeys of sculpture above a busy street. · రవిచంద్ర (Ravichandra) (Wikimedia Commons) (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab)

The temple of Srikalahasti, the North Arcot manual of 1894 says, “stands at the base of the southern hill and near the south-west angle of the central square” of the old town.1 “It is said to have been erected by Bramha, in the Krita yuga, when it was of insignificant dimensions”.1 But “it was extended and improved by the Chola kings and by Krishnadeva Rayalu of Vijayanagar.”1

The wind linga

Its god is Siva in the form of a current of air, worshipped as the Vayu or wind linga.1 Over it hangs a lamp that sways all the time.1 The manual explained the motion by a second lamp burning below it.1

James Fergusson’s revisers of 1910 listed the Pancha-lingams, “five notable symbols of Siva in southern India”.2 Among them they named, “at Kalahasti in N. Arkat, the ‘vayu-lingam,’ of which the lamp vibrates with the wind”.2

The manual noted that Europeans could not enter the temple, “but it is said to contain good sculptures”.3 “There are several mantapams, one called the hall of a hundred pillars.”3

Dating

The temple existed under the Cholas.4 V. Rangacharya wrote that it “existed in his [Rajaraja I’s] reign while it was renovated by Kulottunga III”.4 The earliest records he lists in it are Chola inscriptions.4

An inscription dates the Vijayanagara additions.5 Rangacharya’s list describes it: “196 of 1903.—(Telugu.) On the west wall of the second prakara of the same temple.”5 “A record of the Vijayanagara king Virapratapa-Vira-Krishnadeva Maharaya in S. 1438, Dhatri.”5 “Refers to the king’s conquests, his visit to Kalahasti and his building the 100-pillared mantapa and the big gopura.”5 Saka 1438 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years) corresponds to 1516–17. See the Srikalahasti inscription and Krishnadeva Raya.

The Rayavachakamu

S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar summarised the Telugu Rayavachakamu.6 In his summary it says that the king made large grants to the god of Kalahasti and “also constructed at Kalahasti several choultries” (rest houses).6 But it dates his visit to the year Srimukha and does not mention the gopura (gateway tower).6 The manual’s account of the temple does not say which parts are Chola and which Vijayanagara work.1

Footnotes

  1. Arthur F. Cox, rev. Harold A. Stuart, Madras District Manuals: North Arcot, Vol. II (1894), p. 364 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. James Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. I, revised by James Burgess (1910), p. 374, note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Cox and Stuart, North Arcot Manual, Vol. II (1894), p. 365 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 480, Chittoor district, Kalahasti (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 487, Chittoor No. 135 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 117, extract from the Rayavachakamu (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

Photos

Inscriptions

Srikalahasti inscription of Krishnadeva Raya (1516)

1516 CE

A Telugu inscription on the west wall of the second enclosure of the Kalahastisvara temple at Srikalahasti. It is dated Saka 1438, Dhatri (1516), in the reign of Krishnadeva Raya. As V. Rangacharya summarised it in 1919, it refers to the king's conquests, his visit to Kalahasti and his building of the hundred-pillared mandapa (hall) and the big gopura (gate tower) of the temple. The Telugu Rayavachakamu instead dates the king's grants at Kalahasti to the cyclic year Srimukha.

References

Sources (4)
  1. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 480, 487. [Public domain]
  2. Arthur F. Cox (rev. Harold A. Stuart), Madras District Manuals: North Arcot, Vol. II (new edition) (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1894, pp. 364–365. [Public domain]
  3. James Fergusson (rev. James Burgess), History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. I (revised ed.) (opens in a new tab), John Murray, London, 1910, pp. 374. [Public domain]
  4. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1919, pp. 117. [Public domain]

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