16 Sep Ramappa Temple : Its cultural Significance (gs-1, Culture))
Introduction :-Rudreshwara, popularly known as Ramappa Temple, is located in the village of Palampet approximately 200km north-east of Hyderabad, in the State of Telangana. It is the main Shiva temple in a walled complex built during the Kakatiyan period (1123–1323 CE) under rulers Rudradeva and Recharla Rudra.
Recently UNESC had tagged it as a World Heritage . Besides it there are four more world Heritage sites of Gujarat that have already been declared by UNESCO .
These are Dhaulivara , Rani ki Vav temple and Ahmedabad
History of Ramappa Temple
Rampaa temple is a very good example of classical art and architecture during the Kakatiya Period . The temple got its name Ramappa because of its chief sculptor Ramappa.
It’s probably the only temple in the country to be known by the name of its sculptor. It shows that the King wanted to give credit to that sculptor for building this temple .
This temple was patronised by Kakatiya King Ganpatideva .
The famous poet Tikkana Somayaji was his court poet. Ganapatideva was one of the most popular kings of the Kakatiya dynasty . He had adopted the title of “Rayagajekesari’
On December 13, 1916, when Ghulam Yazdani of the Nizam’s Archaeology Department travelled on the cart track from Mulugu to Palampet village to see the famed temple, he found these two sculptures below the platform. “It is reported that they were removed from the structure by one of the district officers,
And although it is said that Venetian traveller Marco Polo visited the temple, in reality, he travelled only till the Motupalli harbour on the East coast. (Debatable fact)
Art and Architecture of This Temple
Features
- Decorated beams and pillars of carved granite and dolerite with a distinctive and pyramidal Vimana (horizontally stepped tower) made of lightweight porous bricks so-called ‘floating bricks’,
- At the base of a lush green hillock, a channel of water gurgles as it flows out of a reservoir, an 8th century engineering marvel deep in the heart of Telangana.
- The temple’s sculptures of high artistic quality illustrate regional dance customs and Kakatiyan culture.
- Outside the temple is an inscription in Telugu that describes Racherla Senapati Rudrayya, a general of the Kakatiya rulers of Warangal, who commissioned the lake and the temple, which took 40 years for completion in the 13th century.
- Located at the foothills of a forested area and amidst agricultural fields, close to the shores of the Ramappa Cheruvu, a Kakatiya-built water reservoir which show that Our ancestor used temple not only for religious purposes but also for environmental conservation and agricultural promotion
- Flanking the entrance arch are 30 medallions carved in black basalt, showing women in dance poses and playing musical instruments. It appears like a lattice screen through which the grand idol of Shiva can be viewed.
- Dance guru Nataraja Ramakrishna used the dance poses carved in this temple to revive Perini Sivatandavam, a Kakatiya-era warrior dance form performed by men.
In contrast to the softer sandstone used in the temples of Khajuraho, or the carvings of chlorite, laterite and khondarite in the Sun Temple in Konark, Ramappa’s sculptures are carved of black basalt, one of the hardest stones to work with.
- The ornamentation of the central pillars and the architrave above them is rich
By:-Dr Anshul Bajpai
Plutus IAS Daily Current Affairs 16th September 2021
Plutus IAS Current Affair Team Member
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