Alampur Papanasi Temples

Alampur Papanasi Temples are a group of twenty three Hindu temples dated between 9th- and 11th-century that have been relocated to the southwest of Alampur village in Telangana. This cluster of mostly ruined temples are co-located near the meeting point of Tungabhadra River and Krishna River at the border of Andhra Pradesh.Odile Divakaran (1971)
Les temples d'Ālampur et de ses environs au temps des Cāḷukya de Bādāmi
Arts Asiatiques, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 51-101 They are about 1.5 kilometers from the Alampur Navabrahma Temples of the Shaivism tradition, but completed a few centuries later by the Rashtrakutas and later Chalukyas.

The Papanasi temples exhibit the Nagara architecture with a square plan. The Papanasisesvara temple is the largest of Papanasi group. It has a square plan, a ''phamsana'' superstructure with a ''brahmachchanda-griva'' sikhara, plain outer walls and ''rangamandapa'' inside. The temple is dedicated to dancing Shiva (Nataraja, Natesha).

Together with the Navabrahma temples, the Papanasi group were related to the Kalamukha and Pashupata sect of Shaivism. Additional temples in this region made the site a Shaktism ''pitha''. All of these temples featured Vaishnavism themes and narrated Hindu texts in their arts. Together these formed the Brahmeshvara Sthana tirtha (Kshetra), and before their destruction in the 14th and 15th centuries during Delhi Sultanate invasions and associated Muslim-Hindu conflict, they wielded enormous influence in regional religious life. Some historic Hindu and Buddhist literature refers to this site near Kurnool as ''Srisaila'' or ''Sriparvata''. According to David White, this site in 12th century also became linked with the Shaivism sect called Virasaiva or Lingayats.

The Papanasi temple group is not at the original location. They have been moved and restored from their ruins by the Archaeological Survey of India after 1980. They were threatened by the Srisailam hydroelectric project, but they were moved to higher grounds and a barrage built to protect them which has saved them from further damage. Excavations associated with this transplantation of the temples unearthed evidence of temple building rituals.MS Nagaraja Rao (1985)
Indian Archaeology: A Review
, Vol. 1982-83, ASI, pages 9-13
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Location

The Alampur Navabrahma temples are located in the Telangana village of Alampur, at the confluence (''sangam'') of two major rivers, the Tungabhadra and Krishna. It is south of Hyderabad, connected by the four-lane National Highway 44 (Asian Highway 43), and about northeast of Hampi monuments and east of Badami, the capital of the kings who are credited with building it in the 7th century.

Gallery

File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 7.jpg, One of the temples
File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 64.jpg, Another temple with Ganga and Yamuna goddesses, plus Vimana
File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 11.jpg, The mandapam of the largest temple
File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 66.jpg, Nandi facing the sanctum
File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 15.jpg, A 10th-century inscription
File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 17.jpg, Nataraja and directional deities carved in ceiling
File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 37.jpg, A relief showing the Vedic legend of samudra-manthan
File:9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 61.jpg, Saptamatrikas (Shaktism)

See also

*Aihole
*Pattadakal
* Alampur Navabrahma Temples

References

External links

Ten Mahishasuramardani Icons from Alampur
M Radhakrishna Sharma
Doorframes on the Earliest Orissan Temples
Thomas Donaldson

{{Hindu inscriptions and arts, state=autocollapse

Hindu temples in Mahbubnagar district
Indian architectural history
Shiva temples in Telangana
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India
Chalukya dynasty
Hindu temple architecture
Indian rock-cut architecture