Bhupalpally: Ghanpur group of temples enthral DHF cofounder, others

The temples are located 65km away from Warangal city.

Bhupalpally: A group of 10 members from Deccan Heritage Foundation (DHF) and American Friends led by Co-Founder of the DHF Helen Philon visited the 13th century Kakatiya temple complex at Ghanpur (Mulugu) in the Jayashankar Bhupalpally district on Friday.

The team was awe struck by seeing the stunning beauty of the life size black granite sculptures of Siva, Vishnu and Dwarapalas recovered from the excavations conducted inside the temple complex and erected in open air near the temple. The temples are located 65km away from Warangal city.

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Noted archaeologist and CEO, Pleach India Foundation Dr E Sivanagireddy briefed them on the historical details, peculiarities of the art and architecture of the 19 subsidiary shrines, main temple and Kalyana Mandapam built by Recharla Ganapati Reddy in 1254 CE , naming the temple and town as Ganapeswara and Gangapuram respectively after the illustrious Kakatiya emperor Ganapati Deva.

He also explained the variety of superstructures of the subsidiary shrines and the grandeur of the main temple with its massive doorways and beautiful bracket figures as testimonials to the skills and creative talent of the Kakatiya sculptors. He also revealed that temples are popularly known as ‘Kotagullu’ because of the fact that the temples were built inside a mud fort .

Trustee of the American Friends Elena Werner, faculty member of the City college of New York Prof Molly Aitken, and others visited this Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) monument.