View source for Alampur Papanasi Temples

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox religious building
| name               = Alampur Papanasi Temples
| image              = 9th to 11th century Alampur Papanasi Temples, Telangana India - 2.jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = Some of the twenty three temples
| map_type           =  India #India Telangana
| map_caption        = Location in Telangana
| relief             = yes
| religious_affiliation = [[Hinduism]]
| other_names        = 
| proper_name        = 
| coordinates        = {{coord|15|52|17.3|N|78|07|22.8|E|display=inline,title}}
| country            = [[India]]
| state              = [[Telangana]]
| district           = [[Jogulamba Gadwal district]]
| location           = [[Alampur, Jogulamba Gadwal district|Alampur]]
| elevation_m        = 
| deity              = [[Shiva]], [[Devi]], [[Vishnu]], others
| festivals          = 
| architecture_style = [[Hindu temple architecture|Nagara]]
| temple_quantity    = 23
| monument_quantity  = 
| inscriptions       = 
| year_completed     = 9th to 11th century
| creator            = 
| website            = 
}}
'''Alampur Papanasi Temples''' are a group of twenty three [[Hindu temple]]s dated between 9th- and 11th-century that have been relocated to the southwest of [[Alampur, Mahbubnagar|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]].<ref name="Gupta2000p177">{{cite book|author=Harsh K. Gupta|title=Deccan Heritage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8830KZLvkYsC&pg=PA177|year=2000|publisher=Universities Press|isbn=978-81-7371-285-2|pages=177–181}}</ref><ref name=odile51>Odile Divakaran (1971), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43484516 Les temples d'Ālampur et de ses environs au temps des Cāḷukya de Bādāmi], Arts Asiatiques, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 51-101</ref><ref name="Michell2013p319"/> 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.<ref name="Gupta2000p177"/><ref name="Michell2013p319">{{cite book|author=George Michell|title=Southern India: A Guide to Monuments Sites & Museums |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GdBbBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT319 |year=2013|publisher=Roli Books |isbn=978-81-7436-903-1|pages=318–321}}</ref> 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).<ref name="Gupta2000p177"/>

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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Himanshu Prabha Ray|title=Archaeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgFPAQAAIAAJ |year=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-806096-3|pages=32–33}}</ref> Some historic Hindu and Buddhist literature refers to this site near Kurnool as ''Srisaila'' or ''Sriparvata''.<ref>{{cite book|author=David N. Lorenzen|title=The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Śaivite Sects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4hm-k6fKs4C |year=1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01842-6|pages=51–52}}</ref><ref name=white110/> According to David White, this site in 12th century also became linked with the Shaivism sect called Virasaiva or [[Lingayatism|Lingayats]].<ref name=white110>{{cite book|author=David Gordon White|title=The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQuqAAAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-14934-9|pages=110–111, 238}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Michell2013p319"/> Excavations associated with this transplantation of the temples unearthed evidence of temple building rituals.<ref>MS Nagaraja Rao (1985), [http://asi.nic.in/nmma_reviews/Indian%20Archaeology%201982-83%20A%20Review.pdf Indian Archaeology: A Review] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920072437/http://asi.nic.in/nmma_reviews/Indian%20Archaeology%201982-83%20A%20Review.pdf |date=20 September 2010 }}, Vol. 1982-83, ASI, pages 9-13</ref>
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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 River|Krishna]]. It is {{convert|215|km}} south of [[Hyderabad]], connected by the four-lane National Highway 44 (Asian Highway 43), and about {{convert|240|km}} northeast of [[Hampi]] monuments and {{convert|325|km}} east of [[Badami]], the capital of the kings who are credited with building it in the 7th century.<ref name="Michell2013p319"/>

==Gallery==
<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)
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Commons|Category:Papanasi temples, Alampur}}
*[[Aihole]]
*[[Pattadakal]]
*[[Alampur Navabrahma Temples]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145180 Ten Mahishasuramardani Icons from Alampur], M Radhakrishna Sharma
*[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3250134 Doorframes on the Earliest Orissan Temples], Thomas Donaldson
{{Hindu Temples in Telangana}}{{Hindudharma}}
{{Hindu inscriptions and arts|state=autocollapse}}

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