There's Rama temple in the village square. Village folks use it as a cattle-shed and its interior is messy; stones slabs in the floor have been plundered and loose stones lay scattered all around. The temple surrounding is filthy, especially the backside is an open toilet.
One of the villagers went a step ahead and constructed walls between columns!
I was hesitating to step inside. A little calf caught Durga's attention and she wanted to pet it. Raghunatha Reddy, our friend for moment lead us pointing where to step. Durga was all smiles after patting the calf's head.
The columns are basically square with octagonal sections in between. Faces depict various characters- Gods and animals. The Garbhagudi has a Mantapa with four such beautifully sculpted pillars featuring a mix of geometrical and floral designs.
Jai Hanuman!
Its sad to see such art being neglected so badly.
The exterior of the temple depicts scenes from Ramayana.
That's Lord of Lanka- Ravana with ten heads and twenty hands. I wish I had shot the entire scene of Ravana in the company of royal attendants.
That's Sitadevi sitting under couple of trees and surrounded by Ravana's people ...perhaps they are asking Sitadevi to marry Ravana.
Is that supposed to be a wild boar? To me it looks like a hyena. Big fish chasing a smaller fish.
A serpent.
Battle scenes depicting Rakshasa warriors, chariots, monkeys, etc.
One more battle scene showing archers shooting Rakshasas. Other images show cows, elephant and women.
Rama shooting an arrow through seven tree trunks. Laxmana and Hanuman are also seen here.
Battle of the Lords: Rama and Ravana shooting arrows at each other. You can also see the scene of Sugreeva and Vali fighting while Rama aims an arrow at Vali's back.
The temple has many interesting and educative scenes from Ramayana. However, the sculptures look incomplete ...probably abandoned when Vijayanagara Empire collapsed.
On the way to Bagepalli we had to pass through a village called Tolapalli. Elevated haystacks caught my attention; not need to be guarded from cattle and it also works like a shelter for cattle.
This mansion at Tolpalli stands out in the village. The owner of the mansion would be a landlord and a local leader.
The mansion looks like a small palace. In these times its not easy to maintain such heritage buildings.
We stopped by another ancient temple. The board reads Shree Panchanandeswara Swami Sannidhi. Shree Hiraneswaraswami Devastana.
The reason to stop here was to check the ruins of this little mantapa.
We spotted Telugu inscription here.
We headed towards Bagepalli and stopped for a Andhra style lunch. The restaurant was on the town outskirts, we all enjoyed the meal. Durga did not complain one bit!
Our next destination for the day was Gudibande Fort.
.........