The famed Nandi outside the Shiva shrine at Hanamkonda’s Thousand Pillar Temple is now inaccessible to the public. However, the sculpture stands reconstructed with the tail and folded leg complete. It leads to the remarkable resurrection of the temple’s 12th century dance pavilion, rebuilt stone-by-stone after it sank into the ground centuries ago. The revival, achieved after a 42-year effort led by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), has brought back one of the Kakatiya era’s finest architectural marvels.
The dance pavilion of the troika of Shiva, Surya (sun) and Vishnu was ransacked during the southern conquest of Ulugh Khan in 1323-24. The desecrated temple was left to ruins and as the urban neighbourhood of Warangal closed in, the temple land became a playground for children. It was only in 2012, when ₹5 crore was sanctioned for road widening, that the grandeour of the temple became evident as 30 families who lived in the temple premises were evacuated and structures in the surrounding areas demolished. Due to neglect, the disused pavilion sank to the ground as the north-east fracture or lineament drained away the foundational sandbox used for constructing the temple.
