06a - Musical Pillars and Main Unfinished Gopuram

Bugga Ramalingeswara Swamy temple is a

Siva Siva may refer to: Film and television * Siva (director), Indian cinematographer and director * ''Siva'' (1989 Tamil film), a film starring Rajinikanth as the title character * ''Siva'' (1989 Telugu film), an action film Music and dance * "Siv ...

shrine situated on the southern bank of the

Penna river Penna (also known as Pinakini, Pennar, Penner, Penneru (Telugu), Pennai (Tamil)) is a river of southern India. This is a unique river in world where after originating from Nandi hills, it flows as two different streams, one in North and South ...

Tadipatri Tadipatri or Tadpatri is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh at the border of Kurnool district and Kadapa district. It is the mandal headquarters of Tadipatri mandal in Anantapur revenue division. The Chintala V ...

, Anantapur district of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It was built between 1490 and 1509 by Pemmasani Ramalinga Nayudu I, a Pemmasani Nayaka chieftain of the Gutti- Gandikota region during the reign of the

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana and Mahar ...

. The presiding deity is a

linga A lingam ( sa, लिङ्ग , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary ''murti'' or devotional ...

, considered to be ‘

swayambhu Swayambhu ( sa, स्वयंभू) is a Sanskrit word that means "self-manifested", "self-existing", or "that is created by its own accord". Often, the word swayambhu is used to describe a self-manifested image of a deity, which was not made ...

’ (naturally occurring or self originated). The temple has seven small independent pillars in front of the

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within ...

shrine and when struck they produce ' saptaswara' (the seven musical notes).Bhaskar, V. S. "District Census Handbook, Anantapur, Part XII-A & B, Series-29". p. 21. ''The seven small independent pillars in the temple when touched produce 'Saptaswara' (the seven musical notes).

/q> The gopurams of the temple are unfinished and were described by architectural historian James Anderson as ‘wonders’.

Description

Bugga Ramalingeswara Swamy temple is from

railway station. It was likely built between 1490 and 1509 during the reign of the

. As per the Tadipatri ''

kaifiyat A ''Kaifiyat'' is a historical record, especially about a village or a town, from the Deccan region of India. Compiled in 18th and 19th centuries by village accountants, based on earlier records, the ''kaifiyats'' are a valuable source of local his ...

'' collected by

Colin Mackenzie Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, ...

in 1802, the temple was built by Ramalinga Nayudu, a chieftain of the Gutti- Gandikota region in Vijayanagara Empire. The temple consists of a sanctum, ''ardhmandapa'', and ''mukhamandapa'' in an axial line. The temple contains bas relief structures illustrating episodes from ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages e ...

'' and ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

''. The presiding deity (linga) being a ‘

’ (naturally occurring or self originated). Unlike other Hindu temples where the deities are east-facing, in this temple the Shiva linga faces west. When struck, the seven pillars in front of the Vishnu shrine produce ' saptaswara' (a musical scale). The architectural historian James Anderson described the gopurams of this temple as ‘wonders’.

Gallery

File:01 - Sri Bugga Ramalingeswara Temple.JPG, Entrance to Garbhagudi File:04 - On the Banks of River Pennar.JPG, Unfinished gopuram File:05 - Unfinished Temple Gopuram.JPG, Unfinished gopuram File:06 - Musical Pillars - Vijayanagar Style.JPG, Musical pillars File:07 - Rocks used for Construction - Vijayanagar Era.JPG, Rocks used for construction File:Bugga Ramalingeswara temple.jpg, Inside the temple File:Panoramic view of Sri Rameswara Temple in Tadipatri.jpg, Panoramic view of the temple File:Rameswaraswamy temple-Dr. Murali Mohan Gurram (2).jpg, Temple carvings

References

External links

*https://www.inrootz.in/historic-places/religious-spiritual-temples/pl60/Bugga-Ramalingeswara-Temple-Tadipatri-Anantapur * * * {{Hindu Temples in Andhra Pradesh Hindu temples in Anantapur district 15th-century architecture 16th-century architecture