Alampur Navabrahma Temples


Alampur Navabrahma Temples are a group of nine early Chalukyan Hindu temples dated to 7th-century that are located at Alampur in Telangana, near the meeting point of Tungabhadra River and Krishna River at the border of Andhra Pradesh. They are called Nava-Brahma temples though they are dedicated to Shiva. They exemplify early North Indian Nagara style architecture with cut rock as the building block.
The temples are significant for their east-facing simple square plans, intricate carvings of themes of Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism. They also contain early examples of friezes that narrate legends from Hindu texts such as the Panchatantra fables. The temples were a significant influence on the later era Kakatiya Hindu temples.
The Alampur Navabrahma temples were badly damaged and some razed to the ground during the Islamic invasion of this region in 1390. They were built by the Badami Chalukyas rulers, and early 8th-century inscriptions found at the site suggest that the site also had a Shaiva matha which has not survived. Their ruins have been restored by the Archaeological Survey of India after 1980.

Location

The Alampur Navabrahma temples are located in the Telangana town of Alampur, close to the Tungabhadra river. It is south of Hyderabad, connected by the four-lane National Highway 44, 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.

History

Sangameshwara Temple

The Sangameshwara Temple was originally built at , by the confluence of two major sacred rivers of ancient importance, the Tungabhadra and Krishna. Sangameshwara comes from the word Sangam meaning confluence of two or more rivers. The Sangameshwara Temple was constructed by Pulakesi I, in a similar style to the Navabrahma Temples. Based on inscriptional evidence such as the Tummayaneru grant, Sarma dates the temple to pre-Chalukya era when Navabrahma temples were built. Odile Divakaran states that the Sangameshwara temple at Kudaveli was not an earlier monument, but was built along with the nine Navabrahma temples, likely in the middle of the 7th-century. According to Sarma, new inscriptions found in the 1980s at the Arka Brahma and Bala Brahma temples mention a pre-existing mahadevayatana or main temple with linga, the Sangameshwara Temple.
The Sangameshwara Temple has been moved to near the Navabrahma temples, as its original site built at , some 20 km away, is now flooded by the Srisailam Dam hydroelectric project. The Sangameshwara temple transplantation was completed by January 1990.

Navabrahma temples

As the Badami Chalukyan kingdom became well established, its rulers sponsored the distinct Badami Chalukya architecture style of Hindu temple architecture in Aihole, Badami, Alampur and later Pattadakal. The nine temples at this site reflect some of the early Nagara style of Hindu temples that have partially survived for scholarly studies. The uniqueness of this group of temples lies in their plan and design in the northern architectural style introduced by the Chalukyas of Badami in the 7th century.

ASI protection and relocation

The Alampur temples are listed as an archaeological and architectural treasure on the official "List of Monuments" prepared by the Archaeological Survey of India under The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act. Some temples at the Alampur site came under submergence due to the building of Sri Sailam Hydro-electric Project, the threatened ancient and medieval era monuments along with the Sangameshwara temple were relocated to a higher place, west and southwest of the Navabrahma temples. The latter was transplanted near the Alampur Papanasi Temples.

Description

The temples are emblematic of the Northern Indian Nagara style of architecture. The Navabrahma temples are present on the left bank of the Tungabhadra River, enclosed in a courtyard.
The temples have a square plan that follow the vastupurushamandala architecture. A square sanctum is surrounded by a covered circumambulation path and a Rekha-nagara style curvilinear square shikara towers above the sanctum of each temple. The tower is capped by an amla and a kalasha, though in some cases this has not survived. In front of each sanctum is a mandapa.
There is an ASI museum near this group of temples. It shows ruins recovered at the site, with remnants of a Durga in Mhishasura-mardini form, a Lajja-Gauri, a Nataraja Shiva which George Michell calls a "masterpiece of refined sculpture", a polished Nandi statue with Shiva and Parvati riding it. The museum also has ruins of reliefs that narrate Hindu epics and other texts such as the Panchatantra.

Nearby temples

Alampur was an important pilgrimage site for the Hindus well after the 8th century as evidenced by the inscriptions and nearby major complex of temples. The Papanasam group of Hindu temples built in the 9th and 10th centuries are about southwest from the Navabrahma temple site. There are other temples like Suryanarayana temple dating back to 9th century. The Narasimha temple has inscriptions from the Sri Krishna Devaraya era.