Kumararama Bhimeshwara Swamy Temple, Samalkota – History

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 7^th 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.