Upparapalli Temple

Upparapalli (Uparpalli) lies on the road from Karimnagar to Kazipet, eight miles south of Mallangur and four and a half miles west by south of Yedlapuram. Henry Cousens recorded “some interesting ruined temples” there in 1900.¹ He judged them “of about the same age as those at Hanumkonda and Ramappa Lake”.¹

Cousens noted that they were built mainly of granite.¹ The decorated parts, the central columns, door frames and ceilings, were of the fine-grained black stone used in Chalukyan temples.¹ This stone “admits of the very finest chiselling” and “takes a high polish”.¹

The temple

G. Yazdani examined the Shiva temple at Uparpalli for the Hyderabad Archaeological Department in 1916–17, and published its plan.² It has a square hall, 27 feet each way.² A shrine and ante-chamber open off each of its northern, western and southern sides.²

Yazdani found its architecture “rather plain” and its carvings simple.² The exception was a frieze over the northern shrine showing Ganesha dancing over a demon lying on the ground.² An open pillared hall with a shrine adjoins the temple on the south.² He thought this hall was built later and never finished.²

A photograph of the interior of “the Great temple, Uparpalle” had appeared in the department’s report for the year before.² In 1927–28 the department’s assistant director compared the carved pillars and pierced door screens of the temple at Nagunur with “those in the Uparpalli temple”.³

The inscription

In front of the main temple stands a square pillar inscribed on all four sides in Telugu verse and prose.⁴ Cousens summarised it in 1900.¹ L. D. Barnett edited it in 1919 from ink impressions that Yazdani had made in December 1916.⁵

According to Barnett’s edition, the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, son of Rudra, reigned at Anumakonda.⁴ His minister was Recherla Rudra, son of Kad-reddi Bejjama and Bejjamamba.⁴ Rudra’s own minister was the Brahman Raje-nayaka.⁴ Raje-nayaka’s son Kataya rose high in Ganapatideva’s service and “carried out various public works”.⁴

The date is Saka 1157 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the year Manmatha, which Barnett calculated as Thursday, 24 January 1236.⁶ On that day Kataya, who had “constructed ponds and temples of Siva”, granted lands, tanks and groves for the god’s worship, offerings and theatrical entertainment.⁷ The record ends with the sanction (approval) of Ganapatideva.⁷ The record has its own page, the Upparapalli pillar inscription.

Recherla Rudra and the builder

Recherla Rudra is the general who founded the Ramappa temple at Palampet in 1213.⁸ Cousens noted that the inscribed pillar at Palampet bears the same symbols as those at Hanamkonda and Uparpalle.⁸ The inscription does not say who built the temple itself.¹ Cousens’s date for it rests on its style.¹

Footnotes

1. Henry Cousens, Lists of Antiquarian Remains in His Highness the Nizam’s Territories (1900), p. 74 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. G. Yazdani (Superintendent), Annual Report of the Archaeological Department of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, 1326 F. (1916–17) (1917), p. 8 and Plate III (b) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. Annual Report of the Archaeological Department of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, 1927–28 (1929), p. 7 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

4. Barnett, Inscriptions at Palampet and Uparpalli (1919), p. 14 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. L. D. Barnett (ed.), Inscriptions at Palampet and Uparpalli (1919), government resolution, p. v (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. Barnett, Inscriptions at Palampet and Uparpalli (1919), p. 15 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. Barnett, Inscriptions at Palampet and Uparpalli (1919), translation, p. 19 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

8. Cousens, Lists of Antiquarian Remains (1900), p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²