13TH-CENTURY TEMPLE RUINS DISCOVERED

Thirteenth-century temple ruins have been recently unearthed amidst a shrub jungle northeast of the Durga temple, atop a hillock in the Pushpagiri Kshetram of Vallur mandal in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district.
The hillock, also known as Pushpachala, is famous for the chain of temples. With the river Penna flowing southwest, this hilly region has over a hundred small and big temples in its vicinity.
“The Pushpeswara Swamy shrine is revered as a self-manifested idol, which can be found from Mackenzie local record No. 1211,” says historian and writer Tavva Obul Reddy.
The architectural features of the ruins reveal a style which is contemporary to a temple at Vallur, built by the Kayastha rulers in the 13th Century A.D. The Kayasthas, including the great Ambadeva, were subordinates to the rulers of the Kakatiya dynasty. They ruled the region with Vallur as the capital.
The structure in ruins came to light when a team guided by Sri Vidyasankara Bharathi, the pontiff of Pushpagiri Peetham, visited the area ahead of launching a ‘Giri Pradakshina’, a sacred trek perambulating the hill.
Noted historian and archaeologist Emani Sivanagi Reddy points to an inscription at the temple and says, “the images on the stone panel depicting the king and his two queens could also be identified with Kayastha Ambadeva”.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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