Heritage trails

What to look for

• The Census volume describes the gateways as all of one pattern, made of grey granite. A swan sits at each end of the arch.Census 1961, Fairs and Festivals: Warangal
• Murthy also notes a carving of Padmavati, the yakshi of the Jain teacher Parsvanatha, on the south side of the southern gateway.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964
• Two of the gateways carry short inscriptions about the poet Narasimha. The record on the southern gateway lists his works, among them a Kakatiya-charitra in eight cantos, which he is said to have written in a single day.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023 · Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)
• In 1991-92 the Archaeological Survey of India arranged the loose sculptures and scattered architectural pieces of the Swayambhu temple complex like an open-air museum. The review gives the purpose as preventing damage and giving visitors free access.IAR 1991-92

Condition recorded on this website: The four gateways stand. The temple itself is gone, and its carved blocks lie in rows on the lawn between the gateways, as photographs of 2019 show.

What to look for

• The 1900 survey lists Konda Masjid as an old, partly ruined mosque within the fort walls.ASI 1900
• The HRIDAY leaflet places a mosque a few yards south of the Ekasila rock. That mosque may be Konda Masjid.HRIDAY Warangal leaflet
• India's 2019 reply to UNESCO states that Konda Masjid was built partly with stones taken from the ruined Swayambhu temple.UNESCO additional information 2019

The map position is read from a written description, as on the plan of Warangal Fort on this website. The position is approximate.

Condition recorded on this website: Partly ruined as of 1900.

What to look for

• The sources do not agree on which building was the temple of Svayambhu. Most writers give the name to the great ruined temple inside the four gateways. Others give it to Sambhuni Gudi, a small temple facing the southern gateway.HRIDAY Warangal leaflet · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023 · Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)
• The 1900 survey calls the central building simply the great temple. The survey lists Sambhu Gudi separately, as a partly repaired temple with a closed hall and an open porch.ASI 1900
• Murthy identifies the big Nandi at Sambhuni Gudi as the bull that once faced Svayambhu Siva. Its hind part is worn by devotees who beat their heads on it. Its pedestal of red and black stone lay in the excavation pit.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964
• An inscription of 2 October 1245 in the compound of Sambhuni Gudi records that Rudra of the Viriyala family gave thirty cows for a perpetual lamp to the god Svayambhu. The record shows that the shrine was in worship under Ganapati Deva.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023 · Parabrahma Sastry 1978From the page on Warangal Fort →

The map position is read from a written description, as on the plan of Warangal Fort on this website. The position is approximate.

What to look for

• The 1900 survey describes a very large and lofty building that faces north and has a single great hall.ASI 1900
• The hall stands on a platform 7.5 feet above the ground. The main entrance is a lofty arch on the north side. Arched openings pierce the long sides, and windows above them let in light and air.Nizam Archaeological Report 1925-26
• A bold arched cornice on stone brackets runs along the outside. The facing stones are laid in layers of alternate width.Nizam Archaeological Report 1925-26
• Hirananda Sastri credits the hall now called Khush Mahal, near the western gateway of the temple site, to Shitab Khan, who held Warangal around 1500. Phillip Wagoner dates the hall earlier, to the Delhi Sultanate.Hirananda Sastri 1932 · Wagoner 2017 (Encyclopaedia Iranica)From the page on Warangal Fort →

Condition recorded on this website: Standing.

What to look for

• Each gate of the stone wall follows the same pattern. An outer opening between two square towers leads into a long open courtyard, and a second opening leads into the fort.Deloche 2007
• Deloche describes the stone wall as 6 to 8 metres high and 6 to 7 metres thick, with 46 rectangular towers. A broad walkway runs along its top, and tiers of steps lead up to it all round the inside.Deloche 2007
• Two Gajapati records of 2 February 1460 survive at the fort gates. D. C. Sircar placed Ambira's record on the eastern gate and Raghudeva's on the western gate, locally called the fifth gate.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023From the page on Bandri Gateway →
• P. Sreenivasachar disagreed and placed Ambira's record on the stone gateway on the western side. The 1900 survey spells the king's name Kapilendra, as Ambira's record does. The Bandri gateway was probably the gate carrying Ambira's record.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023 · ASI 1900From the page on Bandri Gateway →

What to look for

• The 1900 survey describes a great circular fort with an outer earthen wall and an inner masonry wall. The survey recorded four gates, one each on the north, south, east and west. Only the east and west gates were then in use.ASI 1900
• Later sources count a gate in each wall at every cardinal point, which makes eight in all. The HRIDAY leaflet describes the gates of the mud wall as later work in a Muslim style.HRIDAY Warangal leaflet · Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Amir Khusrau describes the siege of 1310. The outer wall was of mud, with a very deep ditch in front of it. After the outer wall fell, the attackers swam the ditch of the inner stone fort.Elliot & Dowson III

The map places this gate where the earthen wall meets the west, as on the plan of Warangal Fort on this website. The position is approximate.

What to look for

• The Hans India gives the names of the stepwell as Metla Bavi and, locally, Anthasthulu Bavi. The report describes a square, multi-storeyed well of about 12 by 12 metres.The Hans India 2023
• The Deccan Chronicle of 2017 also records the names Digudu Bavi and Eetha Kolanu, and describes three storeys. The Deccan Chronicle of 2025 gives the size as 14 metres on each side.Deccan Chronicle 2017 · Deccan Chronicle 2025
• The historian Hari Sanath Kumar points to the way the number of pillars at each level decreases from the top to the bottom. He also notes that each layer rests on its pillars with iron rings.Deccan Chronicle 2017
• All three reports place the stepwell in the Kakatiya period, and the 2025 report calls it 800 years old. None of the reports gives evidence for the date, and no inscription or published survey records the well.Deccan Chronicle 2017 · The Hans India 2023 · Deccan Chronicle 2025

Condition recorded on this website: Restored in 2025 and open to the public.

What to look for

• The three shrines face different ways. Rudresvara (Shiva) is on the west, Vasudeva (Vishnu) on the north and Surya on the east.Rama Rao 1966
• The temple stands on a double platform with a star-shaped plan. The temple faces south.Rama Rao 1966
• A compound of low walls built of large stone blocks encloses the temple. The old main entrance is on the east, beside the inscribed granite pillar. A large well with steps stands in the north-east corner of the compound.Rama Rao 1966
• A large black stone Nandi faces the shrine.Rama Rao 1966

Condition recorded on this website: Standing and conserved. The Kalyana Mandapa was dismantled for reconstruction.

What to look for

• The largest statue is a standing Tirthankara in a sunken panel on a sheer rock face that looks north. News reports give its height as 30 or 35 feet.Telangana Today, July 2021 · Deccan Chronicle 2018 · Telugu Wikipedia · Telangana360, 2024
• A second standing statue, about 13 feet high, is Parsvanatha. A snake with seven hoods rises over his head.Telangana Today, July 2021 · Wikimedia Commons descriptions
• A row of seven smaller standing Tirthankaras is carved in niches on a boulder of the hill. Two of them stand in front of the coils of a snake.Wikimedia Commons descriptions · Telugu Wikipedia
• The Kakatiya Urban Development Authority developed the hill for visitors under the HRIDAY scheme from about 2017. During this work the Parsvanatha relief was recut in fresh stone.Deccan Chronicle 2018 · Wikimedia Commons descriptions

Condition recorded on this website: Developed for visitors and in Jain worship. The paint has been removed from the large statue. The left hand of the large statue and some neighbouring reliefs show modern repair or new carving.

What to look for

• A Kannada inscription on a granite pillar before the shrine is dated Monday, 24 December 1117. It records that Mailama, wife of Pergade Beta, built the Kadalalaya Basadi on the Anmakonda hill. Pergade Beta was a minister of Prola II, then a Western Chalukya feudatory.ASI 1900 · Epigraphia Indica IX · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Each face of the pillar bears a seated Jain ascetic in relief. The east face also shows a cow and calf, and the north face shows the sun and the moon.Epigraphia Indica IX
• The shrine has a garbhagriha and a small mandapa under a narrow, stepped, pyramidal vimana. Narrow steps lead up to it from a pond at the foot of the hill, the Padmakshi-gundam.Rama Rao 1966
• Reliefs on the rock inside show a Tirthankara with his yaksha and yakshi. The yakshi is now worshipped as Padmakshi. Gopalakrishna Murthy identifies the three sculptures as Parsvanatha, Dharanendra and Padmavati.Rama Rao 1966 · Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: In worship as a Hindu shrine.

What to look for

• A stone gateway leads into the citadel between two hills. A second gateway stands opposite it in another mud wall.Rama Rao 1966
• Rama Rao describes a wide gap in a chain of hills. High mud walls join two big hills and two small hillocks into a fortress.Rama Rao 1966
• Appanna Sastri describes a route by which the defenders could reach Orugallu unseen by enemies. The route entered by the great gate in front of the Padmakshi temple. It left through a large gateway behind the Siddhesvara temple.Appanna Sastri (ed.) 1934
• A large relief of Chamunda is carved on a boulder on the north side inside the fort.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: Remains of the walls and gateways survive, according to Parabrahma Sastry and Rama Rao.

What to look for

• Rama Rao places the temple inside the old citadel of Anmakonda. The citadel also contains the Padmakshi temple.Rama Rao 1966
• Gopalakrishna Murthy describes the pedestal of the Siddheswara linga as crude reddish-white granite. He attributes the pedestal to Beta II, who built the Betesvaram temple.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964
• Gopalakrishna Murthy groups the Siddhesvara temple with early shrines that carry a stepped pyramidal sikhara.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: In worship. The sources record no dated inscription of the temple.

What to look for

• The temple stands on a hillock between Warangal and Hanamakonda. The stone goddess is seated, crowned and eight-armed, and holds weapons. The image is 2.7 metres high and 2.7 metres wide.District Census Handbook 1986
• Gopalakrishna Murthy describes the image as a large painted Chamunda in relief, with a human body stretched beneath her seat. He notes that the temple and the image have been repaired several times.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964
• From that corpse seat, Gopalakrishna Murthy identifies the goddess as Kakatamma, the guardian goddess of the Kakatiyas. He reports a belief that the temple is due to Rudrama Devi.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: In worship. The temple has been repaired several times (1964).

What to look for

• Parabrahma Sastry writes in his thesis of 1975 that the market of the Kakatiya capital was called Mathiya. He places it between the old town of Anumakonda and the new town of the Orugallu fort.Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)
• Murthy writes that numerous old temples still stood on either side of the Mattewada road in his day. He adds that all the small temples on the road in Mattewada had been renovated over the centuries.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964
• Murthy names the Ramalingesvara temple of Mattewada as one of the small temples around Warangal whose architraves echo those of the Swayambhu temple. The architrave above its doorway shows Brahma, Kumara, Siva and Ganapati dancing.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: Murthy wrote in 1964 that the small temples on the Mattewada road had been renovated over the centuries, while sculptural fragments lay under trees and in fields. The District Census Handbook of 1986 calls some old temples here dilapidated.

What to look for

• The temples stand outside Katachpur village, about a mile from the Warangal–Mulug road on the way to Palampet.Rama Rao 1966
• One temple faces east and the other faces south. Both are 54 feet square, alike in plan and construction, and ruined.Rama Rao 1966
• Each temple has a mandapa with a porch and three shrines on a high base. The walls are plain, built of large stone blocks, and the flat roofs have no vimanas. Gajalakshmi appears on the doorway lintels.Rama Rao 1966
• Two of the shrines hold lingas. The eastern shrine of the second temple holds a standing four-armed Vishnu, probably Chennakesava, with mutilated arms.Rama Rao 1966 · Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: Ruined (1966).

What to look for

• The temple stands about a furlong from the Warangal–Mulug road outside Jakaram, on a low mound among fields. It faces south.Rama Rao 1966
• The temple has a garbhagriha, an antarala and a mandapa with porches on three sides. Its walls are plain, built of large stone blocks, and its flat roof has no vimana.Rama Rao 1966
• The antarala jambs show a woman with a bow and arrow, attended by two others. Gopalakrishna Murthy reads the scene as a huntress removing a thorn from her foot.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: The image is missing, and the base is partly buried (1966).

What to look for

• The group has around twenty-two temples inside a double enclosure 260 feet square. The inner enclosure is built of huge stone blocks.Kore & Sudhakar 2017 · Rama Rao 1966
• Eight subsidiary shrines line the western wall, and a group of five shrines stands north of the main temple.Kore & Sudhakar 2017
• The antarala doorway of the main temple carries a carving of Siva Tandava and pierced jali work.Kore & Sudhakar 2017
• Reddy Gudi is a Siva temple at the other end of Ghanpur village. Reddy Gudi faces north.Rama Rao 1966 · Kore & Sudhakar 2017

Condition recorded on this website: Ruined but substantially standing. The roof of the main hall has fallen.

What to look for

• Recherla Rudra, a general of Ganapati Deva, built the temple in 1213 in his new town of Atukuru. Atukuru is now Palampet.Barnett 1919 · Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · 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 1900 · UNESCO dossier 2017 · Rama Rao 1966
• The tower over the shrine is built of bricks that are light enough to float on water.UNESCO dossier 2017 · ASI 1900
• 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

Condition recorded on this website: UNESCO inscribed the temple on the World Heritage List in 2021 as Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple, Telangana.

What to look for

• The inscription of 1213 in the temple courtyard says that Recherla Rudra built a city and a pond. The pond “stands like an ocean” and “looks like a mirror for that city”.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• An earthen dam about 2,000 feet long and 56 feet high closes a semicircular chain of hills.Rama Rao 1966
• The UNESCO dossier places Ramappa Cheruvu south-west of the temple, below the forest hills. The temple stands on the downstream side of the tank.UNESCO dossier 2017
• The dossier states that the Voger channel runs from the lake past the western side of the temple to water the surrounding fields.UNESCO dossier 2017

Condition recorded on this website: In use (1981).

What to look for

• Three narrow valleys were each closed with a short bund to form the lake. Its catchment is about 195 square kilometres, and it irrigates about 5,260 hectares. Its surplus water ultimately joins the Godavari.District Census Handbook 1986
• Parabrahma Sastry calls Laknavaram another big tank of the Kakatiya period. Like the Bayyaram tank and Pakala Lake, it is fed by streams that flow off a large plateau.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The sources consulted contain no inscription that gives the builder or the date of the lake.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023

Condition recorded on this website: In use for irrigation (1981).

What to look for

• The dam is about two thousand yards long and holds back nearly thirteen square miles of water. The lake measures roughly 8,000 by 6,000 yards.Imperial Gazetteer 1909
• Other sources give different lengths for the dam. Parabrahma Sastry and the 1900 survey give about one mile, and the 1976 Warangal Gazetteer gives 1,219 metres.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · ASI 1900 · Warangal District Gazetteer 1976
• A small pavilion called the chabutra of Shitab Khan stood at the centre of the bund.Imperial Gazetteer 1909 · ASI 1900
• A stone pillar on the bund carries an illegible inscription. Tradition says that it records the builder as Raja Khaldya.ASI 1900

Condition recorded on this website: In use. Restoration under the Mission Kakatiya programme.

What to look for

• Gopalakrishna Murthy describes the Ekavira temple as a simple one, with a sanctum and an antechamber. A parapet wall runs around it, with a raised stone seat along its inner side.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964
• In his description, pillars seem to rise from the parapet wall at regular intervals. The roof covers the temple and also the circumambulatory path inside the line of pillars. Murthy notes the same kind of roof in the Chalukyan temples at Alampur.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964
• Gopalakrishna Murthy saw a crude Bhairava carved in low relief near the temple, and a very recent image meant to portray Ekavira.Gopalakrishna Murthy 1964

Condition recorded on this website: In ruins by 1962, with its annual festival discontinued. Photographs of 2021 show the pillared hall and the square sanctum still standing on bare rock, overgrown, with numbers painted on the pillars and beams.