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Ramappa Temple

Ramappa Temple, at Palampet, is a single-shrine temple with three entrance porches, built in 1213 by the general Recherla Rudra. It stands on a high, two-tier, star-shaped platform. Its dolerite bracket sculptures and its light brick tower are its best-known features.

Period
Kakatiya, from 1213 CE
Date
1213 CE (Saka 1135)
Commissioned by
Recherla Rudra (Recherla Chamupati), general of Ganapati Deva
Materials
Pink sandstone, with granite, dolerite and sandstone beams and pillars, and a brick tower
Location
18.2594° N, 79.9425° E

Source of the position: Wikidata Q3380656

Condition
UNESCO inscribed the temple on the World Heritage List in 2021 as Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple, Telangana.
Ramappa Temple seen from the south-west. The pale, many-tiered vimana rises over the shrine, and the flat-roofed mandapa with projecting eaves extends to the right. Both stand on a broad moulded platform, and a stone elephant stands on its edge.

The vimana rises over the shrine at the left, and the mandapa, with its deep overhanging eaves, extends to the right. The whole temple stands on the raised star-shaped platform.

Photo: Rangan Datta Wiki, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Two dark polished stone bracket sculptures of women, set between the column capitals and the overhanging eave of the Ramappa mandapa, seen from below. The sculpture on the right holds a bow.

Bracket sculptures (madanikas) in dark polished stone spring from the outer columns of the mandapa to support the overhanging eave. The sculpture on the right holds a bow.

Photo: Varshabhargavi, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Ramappa Temple under a pale sky: the tall tiered vimana at right and the pillared mandapa at left on a wide stepped platform, with a bare earth courtyard in the foreground

Ramappa (Rudreshwara) Temple at Palampet, built 1213 CE: the vimana over the shrine and the mandapa, on the raised platform.

Photo: Rangan Datta Wiki, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Detail

  • Recherla Rudra, a general of Ganapati Deva, built the temple in 1213 in his new town of Atukuru. Atukuru is now Palampet.Barnett 1919Parabrahma Sastry 1978UNESCO dossier 2017
  • The UNESCO dossier states that the temple takes its popular name from its chief sculptor, Ramappa. The dossier cites no inscription for the sculptor's name, so the name rests on tradition.UNESCO dossier 2017
  • The 1900 survey and M. Rama Rao describe a single shrine with a great hall. The UNESCO nomination dossier calls the plan a trikuta form. Its drawings explain that the temple has one shrine and three entrances, which resembles a trikuta plan.ASI 1900Rama Rao 1966UNESCO dossier 2017
  • The Kateshwara temple stands north of the main temple on its own high platform. The Kameshwara temple, now called the Kalyana Mandapa, stands to the south on a star-shaped platform of its own.UNESCO dossier 2017
  • The temple is built mainly of pink sandstone. Its beams and pillars are of granite, dolerite and sandstone, and the ceiling of the hall is of granite.UNESCO dossier 2017
  • The tower over the shrine is built of bricks that are light enough to float on water.UNESCO dossier 2017ASI 1900
  • The temple stands on a sand-box foundation. The builders dug a pit two to three metres deep and filled it with sand.UNESCO dossier 2017
  • Bracket sculptures of women, called madanikas, spring from the outer pillars of the porches to support the overhanging cornice. The sculptures are almost life-size and carved in dolerite.ASI 1900UNESCO dossier 2017Rama Rao 1966
  • The UNESCO dossier counts 38 bracket sculptures on the hall, and twelve of them are madanikas. Elsewhere the same dossier gives 40 madanikas and gaja-vyalas, each about six feet tall.UNESCO dossier 2017
  • The Hyderabad Archaeological Department described the temple in its report for 1914–15. That report gives the platform a height of 6 feet 4 inches. It also records a walkway 10 feet wide around the temple.UNESCO dossier 2017
  • India first proposed the temple in 2014 with the Thousand Pillar Temple and the Swayambhu temple at Warangal Fort. The final nomination dropped the other two sites.UNESCO dossier 2017

Inscriptions on this monument

These images show the inscriptions themselves. The ink impressions come from the published editions, and the photographs show the stones today. How to read a Kakatiya inscription

An ink impression of two long columns of an inscribed pillar. Rows of pale rounded letters stand on a dark ground, and printed numbers mark every second line.

Estampage (ink impression)

This estampage shows lines 1 to 110 of the Sanskrit inscription of Recherla Rudra on a black basalt pillar at the Ramappa temple, Palampet. Barnett describes the letters as fairly good Telugu characters of the type usual in the period. The book prints the plate at one-seventh of the original size, with the caption "Inscriptions of Ramappa Temple, Palampet, Hyderabad".

Estampage published in L. D. Barnett (ed.), Inscriptions at Palampet and Uparpalli, Hyderabad Archaeological Series No. 3 (1919). Photo-lithograph by W. Griggs & Sons. G. Yazdani took the estampages in 1916. Plate: "Inscriptions of Ramappa Temple, Palampet, Hyderabad", scale one-seventh. · Public domain · This record in the database

An ink impression of the last part of the Ramappa pillar inscription in two columns. Pale letters stand on a dark ground, and printed numbers run from 112 to 204.

Estampage (ink impression)

This estampage continues the Ramappa pillar inscription from line 112 to line 204. Lines 183 and 184 in the right-hand column give the date of the grant. Barnett reads Saka 1135, the year Srimukha, Chaitra bright eighth day, Sunday, and equates it with 31 March 1213.

Estampage published in L. D. Barnett (ed.), Inscriptions at Palampet and Uparpalli, Hyderabad Archaeological Series No. 3 (1919). Photo-lithograph by W. Griggs & Sons. G. Yazdani took the estampages in 1916. Second page of the plate "Inscriptions of Ramappa Temple, Palampet, Hyderabad" (unnumbered continuation). · Public domain · This record in the database

A tall black stone pillar stands inside a small open pavilion of red sandstone, with the Ramappa temple behind it.

Photograph of the stone

The Ramappa inscription pillar stands in a small pavilion to the north-east of the temple. Recherla Rudra, a general of the Kakatiya king Ganapati, set up this Sanskrit record in 1213.

Photo: Ms Sarah Welch, via Wikimedia Commons · CC0 · This record in the database

One face of the black inscription pillar shows a small carving of Ganesa at the top and close rows of letters below it.

Photograph of the stone

Each of the four faces of the Ramappa pillar has a carved panel at the top. This face shows Ganesa. Barnett (1919) lists a linga, a cow and calf, and the sun and moon on the other faces.

Photo: Ms Sarah Welch, via Wikimedia Commons · CC0 · This record in the database

Historical photographs

These photographs were published a century or more ago. They show the monument as it stood before later repair and restoration.

Black-and-white photograph of the Ramappa Temple from the north-west. Grass and small trees cover the roof of the open hall and the tower over the shrine. The temple stands on a broad stepped platform.

Photographed 1915-16

The Hyderabad Archaeological Department photographed the Ramappa Temple from the north-west in 1915-16. Grass and small trees grow on the roof and on the tower over the shrine. The department's report for 1930-31 states that its repairs to the Ramappa Temple were complete.

Photo: Hyderabad Archaeological Department, The Temples at Palampet (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 6), 1922 · Public domain

Black-and-white photograph of the Ramappa Temple from the south-east across open ground. Carved brackets stand under the deep eaves of the hall. Plants grow along the roof, and a tree grows beside the tower.

Photographed 1915-16

The Hyderabad Archaeological Department photographed the Ramappa Temple from the south-east in 1915-16. Plants grow along the roof of the hall, and a tree grows beside the tower. The photograph was published in 1917 and again in 1922.

Photo: Hyderabad Archaeological Department, The Temples at Palampet (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 6), 1922 · Public domain

Close view of the stone tower above the Ramappa shrine. Grass and shrubs grow out of the tower, and its upper part is uneven. A small carved niche sits in the shrine wall below.

Photographed before 1917

This photograph shows the tower over the shrine of the Ramappa Temple. Grass, shrubs and a tree grow out of the joints of the tower. The photograph was published in 1917 and again in 1922.

Photo: Hyderabad Archaeological Department, The Temples at Palampet (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 6), 1922 · Public domain

A slender stone sculpture of a woman in a dancing pose stands on a sloping bracket under the eave. A sculpture of a rearing beast stands on the next bracket at the left.

Photographed before 1922

A carved stone woman stands on a bracket between a pillar top and the eave of the Ramappa Temple. A rearing beast is carved on the next bracket. The photograph was published in 1922.

Photo: Hyderabad Archaeological Department, The Temples at Palampet (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 6), 1922 · Public domain

A low stepped stone platform with loose blocks and broken carved pillar parts on top. A large leafy tree stands beside the platform.

Photographed before 1922

The Nandi pavilion of the Ramappa Temple was in ruins when this photograph was published in 1922. Loose blocks and broken pillar parts lie on its stepped platform. A large tree grows beside it.

Photo: Hyderabad Archaeological Department, The Temples at Palampet (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 6), 1922 · Public domain

The low walls of a ruined stone temple, with fallen blocks heaped in front of them. Two stone elephant sculptures stand among the fallen blocks. Trees grow behind the temple.

Photographed before 1922

A smaller temple north of the main Ramappa Temple was in ruins when this photograph was published in 1922. Fallen stone blocks lie in front of its walls. Two stone elephants stand among the blocks.

Photo: Hyderabad Archaeological Department, The Temples at Palampet (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 6), 1922 · Public domain

Also recorded as

  • Rudreswara
  • Rudreshwara
  • Palampet
  • Palampett
  • Palampeta
  • Pilampet
  • Ramappa Gudi
  • Ramappa
  • Ramalingeswara

Sources