Kumararama Bhimeshwara Swamy Temple, Samalkota – History
This place was known as Purva Chalukya Bhimavaram as the
Eastern Chalukyas ruled this place. The temple was built in Dravidian style, by
the King Chalukya Bhima. Hence, the god name is Bhimeshwara. Construction of
the temple started in 892 and completed around 922. The Chalukya king built
this temple to record his history of 300 victories in wars. The Kakatiya rulers
(in the period 1340-1466CE) have added and renovated the temple pillars with
very fine sharp finishes. The work of Chalukyas and Kakatiya's is very easily
distinguished, by the well-decorated and polished pillars in the temple to the rest
of the temple, both new and old.
The construction of this temple is so solid that it has
not changed much through all the years, when compared to the Draksharama
temple. There are inscriptions dated to 1147 AD – 1494 AD found on the pillars
of the temple, which lists of gifts given, through the ages, for the temple.
Recent excavations in the compound of the temple has yielded many figures dated
back 1000 years are now present inside the temple.
The Archaeological Survey of India, Hyderabad, has come
across an interesting discovery of a unique inscribed image of a king in the
Sri Kumara Bhimeshwara Swamy Temple premises. This is one of the earliest
inscribed images of a king discovered so far in the State and a unique one. The
highly eroded sand stone sculpture was 108 cm high, 42 cm wide and 22 cm thick.
It is a life-size form of an imperial personality standing on a broad pedestal
with characteristic gesticulations of ardent Siva gana. The King’s sculpture
had a roundish face, soft cheeks, wide open eyes, a broad heavy nose and closed
lips. Ear rings, a stringed necklace and a sacred thread can be seen on the
King’s sculpture.
On the eroded broad pedestal, there is an inscription.
Basing on paleographical grounds, this is one among very few early Telugu
inscriptions belonging to the 7th Century A.D. (early Eastern
Chalukya times) and stands as a testimony to antiquity of language. It read as
‘This is the stone image of Chandrarasi, who is in ascetic attire, brought the
intellectual Kedararasi after convincing him on the event of his victory’. Chandrarasi,
probably a royal personality of this region, seems to be a patron of God Sri
Kumara Bhimeshwara of Samarlakota.
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