Rangareddy, Oct.9 : Members of the Kotha Telangana Charitra Brindam (KTCB) have discovered a historic 18th-century Telugu inscription on the premises of the Venkateswara Temple atop a hillock in Tukkuguda, located in the Maheshwaram mandal of Ranga Reddy district. The inscription was deciphered by the group’s President, Sriramoju Haragopal, following a field exploration conducted alongside Vice-Presidents B.V. Bhadragirish and Vemuganti Muralikrishna, as well as Executive Committee members Boya Srinivas Reddy, Yadeswar Dandethkar, and Kavali Chandrakant.
According to the history researchers, the rock-cut inscription confirms that the hillock was historically known as ‘Venkatapati Konda’ and refers to the presiding deity as ‘(Ti)rupati Prasanna Venkatadri’. Epigraphical analysis dates the dharma-shasana (charity decree) precisely to February 4, 1762 CE (Vikruti Samvatsara, Magha Shuddha Dashami, Thursday). The inscription records a pious deed commissioned by Ramayagaru, a descendant of Lakshmikanthayya, Lakshmikomara Keshavayya, and Chandrayagaru.
The cave temple complex, situated on a rocky hillock, features two cave shrines dedicated to Lord Venkateswara and Lord Shiva, containing half-relief sculptures (ulbana-shilpams) dating back to the post-17th-century period. A notable feature inside the north-facing Venkateswara garbhalaya is a mirror arrangement set up directly opposite the deity for darshan, similar to the setup at the Ranganayaka temple in Kukatpally. The complex also houses a six-foot-tall relief of Virabhadra, figures of Hanuman, Garudalvar, and Vaishnava dvarapalakas, alongside a four-pillared kalyanamandapam built in imitation of the Rashtrakuta architectural style.
The exploration team also documented half-relief sculptures of the temple builder accompanied by his two wives carved onto a rock boulder along the stepped pathway leading to the main shrine. Historians emphasized that the discovery sheds valuable light on the regional religious history and temple patronages of the late 18th century in the Ranga Reddy region.
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