Heritage Diaries: A forgotten Rajanna temple
Located in Maggalagadda hamlet in Jagitial district, the temple dates back to more than 2,000 years
Hyderabad: Everyone knows about the temple of Rajanna (Rajeshwaraswami) in Vemulawada. But most are not aware of another contemporary temple of Rajeshwaraswami located on the right bank of the river Godavari at the deserted hamlet Maggalagadda of Cheggam village, Velgatur mandal of Jagitial district.
This temple also has a history of a millennium and is unique in many respects –style of architecture, history, inscriptions and cultural ethos. The rectangular stone shrine has a 2 feet high parapet wall around the shrine with carved pillars. It has four entrances in four directions.
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The State Archaeology Department obtained the estampage of the inscription apart from another legendary inscription from the nearby Suryachandrarajulabanda, now submerged in the backwater/course of the abutting River Godavari, and the essence was published in its annual report in 2008-09.
The front portion of the Shikhara of the temple is projected with beautiful Keertimukha in Chalukya/Kakatiya style of architecture. Locals call it Rakshasi (demon) and they say the temple was built by Rakshasas thousands of years ago when they only could lift the heavy stones of the temple. Several sculptures of the deities such as Bhairava, Bheemanna (gada), Naga, Dwarapala, Anjaneya, Shivalingas, Nandi, Poshamma and Potalinganna are placed in the south-eastern direction of the temple.
Yagnyam to Cheggam
The then State Archaeology officer Dr VV Krishna Sastry visited the temple some four-and-a-half decades ago and recorded in his memoirs that the roots of the temple go back to more than 2,000 years when the Satavahana emperors of the nearby Kotilingala conducted yagnyam here and hence its tadbhava name Jeggam came into being and subsequently Jeggam became Cheggam.
Dr Sastry observed the temple was developed on the plan of Yagnya Vedika and hence still resembles Yagnya Vedika and is said to have Vedic roots. Further, several villages came into being, during the dynastic period of Satavahanas, with the names of professionals/castes and one such professional hamlet is Maggaalagadda, meaning platform of handlooms; the subsequent corrupt name being Mangaligadda where the temple is. Up to 1980 only families of weavers used to live in the hamlet.
The Vemulawada Chalukya kings seem to have constructed the existing temple more than 1,000 years ago because the same name of Vemulawada Rajeshwaraswami was given to this temple apart from its architectural style.
Jathara Market in History
An annual fair (Jathara) of a large scale used to be conducted on the premises of the Rajeshwaraswami temple. Merchants and hawkers would come from distant places like Warangal and Kolipaka (Kolanupaka). Some of such rich merchants acquired vast tracts of land in the surroundings of the temple; thus we hear names like, Manchala Chenu / Bodalu and Kolipaka Chelka which were acquired by rich merchants with surnames Manchala and Kolipaka respectively.
Pothana Visit
Celebrated poet Bammera Pothana came here from Bommera village (south of Warangal) and prayed to the god on Godavari dunes some 600 years ago and began writing his well-known work Bhagavatam herein the temple, his writings reveal.
Cultural Association
Regular worship, fairs and festivals were conducted in the temple till 1980 and inam lands were donated to Jangama priests for the upkeep of the temple. Till recently, pilgrims took bath in the River Godavari near this temple and villagers used to immerse Bathukammas here. Special occasions like the first cut of birth hair (puttu ventrukalu) and piercing of the ear (chevulu kuttichuta) were performed by villagers here.
Project Effect
With frequent floods in Godavari and the consequent shifting of Mangaligadda to Cheggam, the worship of Rajeshwaraswami stopped and the temple was vandalised by treasure hunters. Further, with the multi-purpose project at Ellampally, the submerged village Cheggam was shifted from its original place to the foothills of the nearby hill. As a result, the Rajeshwaraswami temple gets submerged in the project backwaters during the rainy season and appears during summer when the water recedes.
Shifting Alternative
Now, the villagers wish to construct a temple for their daily worship and for celebrating festivals and special occasions. Instead of constructing a new brick-cement temple, they are seeking to shift the 1,000-year-old Rajeshwaraswami temple to their present village.
Earlier too the government had shifted several temples while constructing projects at Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Tungabhadra, etc., as per the procedure of salvage archaeology. The villagers have urged the government to shift the temple with technical support from the Archaeology department and financial support from the Irrigation and Endowment departments.
