The reassuring rhythmic ting, ting, ting, ting sound of a chisel striking a block of stone is back at the Rudreshwara temple in Hanamkonda.
Craftsmen sitting under a blue tarp on the 60-tonne blocks of granite chisel and follow lines to shape what looks like a beam that will cover the outer portion of the Kalyana Mandapa that lends the name to the 1,000-pillar temple. The Kakatiya-era temple is on the base of the hill which lends the name to the town: Anumukonda.
“Two of the 10-metre blocks broke while being unloaded at the worksite,” informs an Archaeological Survey of India official. He pulls up images on the computer to show how six cranes were used to hoist the stone on to the 20-wheeler trailer truck to transport them from Ammavaripeta rock quarry, some 12 km away, to Hanamkonda temple site.
Chronology of a resurrection
January 11, 1163: Kakatiya king Rudradeva constructed the temple for Rudra, Vasudeva and Surya with a Kalyana Mandapa.
1323-24: Ulugh Khan lays a siege on Warangal and then desecrates the temple and soldiers deface the sculptures.
1888: Raja Deen Dayal clicks a photograph showing people living near the pillars of the Kalyana Mandapa.
1929: Archaeology department of Nizam’s Dominion cleans the pathway around the temple and carries about basic work in stabilising the temple.
2012: ₹5 crore sanctioned for widening the road leading to the 1000-pillar temple in Hanamkonda; and ₹3 crore was distributed among 30 families paving the way for demolition of houses built in front of the temple.
2013: Andhra Pradesh Endowments Minister C. Ramachandraiah floated proposal for restoring the 1000-pillar temple by reinstalling the lost idols of Surya and Vishnu in the main sanctum sanctorum.
2017-18: ₹68,00,000 approved for ongoing reconstruction of Kalyana Mandapa and an additional ₹10,00,000, and ₹10,00,000 was approved for repairs to the main temple.
2018-19: ₹25,00,000 is approved by ASI for reconstruction of the remaining work at Kalyana Mandapa, Hanamkonda; ₹10,00,000 approved for repairs to the main temple; ₹10,00,000 approved for providing pathway with stone flooring, signages in granite, drinking water and washing area.
2021: Work gathers pace for reconstruction of the Kalyana Mandapa.
The event shows the kind of challenge the ASI is up against to reassemble the temple pillars that were disassembled in 2005 fearing collapse, according to official documents.
Just a year earlier in 2004, Telugu blockbuster film ‘Varsham’ was shot near the temple where hero Prabhas serenades Trisha. The camera caresses the dark countless pillars as rain pitter-patters and sloshes across the large platform of the temple. The pillars appear intact, and that was the last time the Kalyana Mandapa appeared intact.
Giving up hope
Nearly 17 years later, rain descends in sheets as workers carry on chiselling and cutting work. Some of the pillars are vertical and supported by iron scaffolding. “We expect to complete the work by March 2023,” informs an ASI official. Some pillars cracked into two while being dismantled. Some beams got damaged while the temple was being taken apart. Now, steel bands hold the big stone blocks together.
Similar steel bands can be seen on the floor on stones which were assembled by medieval temple architects. A ramp of sand and granite has been set up on the southern side of the Kalyana Mandapa to roll up the granite blocks before they are hoisted into position as beams or pillars.
According to the inscription on the site, the temple was built in 1163 by Kakatiya Rudradeva as a thanksgiving to Rudra, Vasudeva and Surya. The three temples (trikuta aalyam) are on east, west and northern side, while a massive Nandi and Kalyana Mandapa are on the southern side. Now, regular puja and abhishekam take place only at the temple dedicated to Rudra or Shiva.
The sanctum sanctorum of Vasudeva and Surya were ransacked during the siege of Warangal Fort in 1323-24 by the armies of Ulugh Khan, who later crowned himself as Mohammed bin Tughlaq. The sculptures at the lower level are horribly disfigured. The surviving figurines of Natya Indra, Natya Narasimha and Nataraja above the door frames of individual temples show a glimpse of the craftsmanship.
The three temples open out to a Ranga Mandapa meant for sacred dances. The damage that the marauders could not do was done by time and louts, who chiselled their names and left love notes on the granite blocks, including on the pillars of the Ranga Mandapa.
“We take a month to shape each block of stone despite using stone cutters. I don’t know how those craftsmen carved and shaped the granite blocks,” says Karpaiah from Tiruchirapalli, who leads a crew of craftsmen at the worksite. There are dozens of workers who keep coming and going back to their hometown as the work continues.
Why is it taking so much time? “There were doubts about its stability and foundation and that’s why it was dismantled. Some of the pillars broke while being dismantled. The ASI wanted to procure the same kind of stone and restore it with care and that took time,” informs an ASI official. Procuring the large blocks of stones, and dressing them by keeping the basic geometrical shape for the new stones proved to be a challenge, he says.
Gigantic proportions
To call them pillars would be an understatement. They are massive blocks of granite that have been machined into the smoothness of soap. Like pieces of jewellery smoothened to shine. Some visitors try to string thread through blocks of sculpture to show the intricacy of the craftsmanship, successfully. Some of the stone blocks that are put together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without any bonding material. They are held together just by gravity. It is a modular architecture before its time.
“I remember playing there. It was always in a state of disrepair. The roof was not there and it was open season for the kids in the neighbourhood,” says Naveen, whose house overlooks the temple at Machli Bazaar. Now, access to the Kalyana Mandapa is limited to work crews and ASI officials.
An 1888 sepia-tinted photograph by Raja Deen Dayal shows the temple surrounded by straw and mud houses built by residents. In 1929, the then Archaeology department director Gulam Yazdani wrote about temple repairs. “The elaborate cast iron railing, put up around the building about 40 years ago, was an eyesore. So, it has been replaced by a plain pipe railing. Further, as props were needed for the support of a cracked lintel in the western porch of the outer hall, they have been built of neat masonry. The court of the temple has been levelled and neat paths of moram have been laid out for visitors,” wrote Mr. Yazdani. Even now, visitors walk on the morum path laid nearly 100 years ago. Incidentally, the ASI got approval of ₹10 lakh for laying the pathway with stone flooring. But there is no stone flooring to be seen in 2022.
Even as late as 2014, houses surrounded the temple blocking the view from the main road. Even cows and buffaloes wallowed around.
Losing race for heritage tag
The same year, in April 2014, India submitted ‘The Glorious Kakatiya Temples and Gateways’ as a serial nomination for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The sites in the serial nomination included the 1000-pillar temple, Ramappa temple, the remnants of Shivambu temple near Warangal Fort and the Keerthi Toranas of Warangal.
But, the 1000-pillar temple was erased from the nomination. The nomination dossier cited issues about the authenticity and integrity of the site for dropping it from the serial list. “The administering committee, while preparing the nomination dossier, had re-evaluated the sites for protection and management and decided to compare but not to include in the sites of Rudreshwara (1000-pillar) temple, Hanamkonda and Swayambhu temple, and Warangal Fort. As of now, the authenticity of these sites cannot be presented in complete meaning and the integrity cannot be maintained with the issues pertaining to management of both the sites,” noted the document. A modified dossier with just the Ramappa temple got the World Heritage Site tag in 2021.
Hub of life
Temples are known after the idols or the locations. The Kakatiya-era Ramappa temple is known by the name of the architect. Another rarity is the 1000-pillar temple known by its architectural feature. Are there really 1000 pillars? How do we count them? Where should we begin? That’s the question devotees and visitors to the temple at Hanamkonda ask.
The residents of the town know it as ‘veyi-sthambala gudi’. “This temple was built to show the unity of God. The trikuta-alayam (three temples) have only one Nandi facing all the three idols. The miracle of the architecture can be seen even now — the first rays of the sun fall on the Nandi throughout the year,” says Kashi Viswanathacharya, the temple priest.
He then fishes out his cellphone, scrolls through photographs to show how the morning sunlight filtered through the stone-lattice-work to shimmer on the Shiva idol on May 23 this year. The sunrays shift from northern and southern side after the solstice during dakshnayam and during uttarayam.
Medieval temples were not just places of worship but were the fulcrum of community life. The portion of temple that was used for this role was the Ranga Mandapa (stage for drama) where Ranga Bhoga (dramatic offering) was conducted before the celestial beings. If a drama troupe or hari-katha (wandering minstrels)party visited the village, the stage for performance was usually the temple and its mandapa. Even marriages of village personages would take place at the Kalyana Mandapa.
The Rudreshwara temple is different as it has both a Ranga Mandapa in the middle of the three temples and a Kalyana Mandapa reached by a connected platform for festive occasions. After the formation of Telangana State, the temple’s stepwell has become a centre for celebration of Bathukamma in the district.
For years, when the temple was disused and was in a ruined condition, it was a playground for children in the neighbourhood. Now, school and college students make a day trip to the temple. But for the residents of the town, it is still the veyi-sthambala gudi, where they can walk with a cake and have a birthday party.
