DERACINATION IS A HYDRA-HEADED MONSTER. For more than a century, it has manifested itself in all realms of our national life. It shows itself most markedly in the comparisons that Hindus seek to explain their own culture and society by using references to Western counterparts. This habit was introduced by the British in their initial quest to “understand” India. Throughout their stay here, they contaminated Indians with this disease. Three-fourths of a century after they left, Indians are actually celebrating this ailment.
Thus, Kavikulaguru Kalidasa becomes the “Shakespeare of India,” Bhagavan Kautilya becomes the “Indian Machiavelli” and Tyagaraja Swami becomes the “Indian Beethoven.” None of them have an independent identity.
This self-shame and the unasked erasure of identity also extends to geography. Thus, Gandikota is not just Gandikota. It is the “Grand Canyon of India.”
Gandikota is a spectacular and breathtaking work of art chiselled by Prakrti in all her rawness. Its brilliant history dating back almost to a millennium begins with its founding in 1123 CE by a Kakatiya feudatory of Ahavamalla Someshwara I, the monarch of the Kalyana Chalukyas.
A Sthala-Purana mentions this feudatory’s name as “Kāka Mahārāju,” who ruled from the nearby Bommanapalle village. He first discovered the place on a hunting expedition and was awestruck by its rugged, majestic beauty. The locals told him that it was a region sanctified by the Rishis of the yore. Kāka Mahārāju then sought counsel with his advisors who told him to establish a village there and to fortify it. That is how Gandikota got its first fort made of sand. Kāka Mahārāju also built a grand temple dedicated to Raghunatha Swami.
A virgin civilisational complex was thus built from the scratch.
For the next six hundred years, Gandikota flourished as a strategic military outpost, capital, and a revenue district. Bukkaraya, the formidable younger brother of Harihara and cofounder of the peerless Vijayanagara Hindu Empire, built the grand Madhavaswami Temple in the precincts of the fort. It has weathered the storms of time and endures till date. Over the centuries, more temples adorned the site.
Gandikota thus became a great prize coveted by every dynasty that ruled South India after the Kakatiyas. Sri Krishnadevaraya transformed it into a sīme (district), which encompassed Pulivendula, Proddatur, Kadapa, Kamalapuram and parts of Kurnool. Gandikota itself fell under the jurisdiction of the Udayagiri Rajya (Province).
THE CATACLYSMIC BATTLE OF TALIKOTA in 1565 altered the fortunes of Gandikota for the worse. It wasn’t long before Gandikota received a firsthand taste of Islamic piety and lost its independence permanently.
With the extinction of the protective umbrella of Vijayangara, its feduatories, the Nayakas and Palegars declared independence. The Kannada region witnessed the emergence of the principalities of Keladi, Ikkeri, Bedanur, Belur, Chitradurga, and the Mysore Wodeyars. The Tamil region was broken into tiny kingdoms at Thanjavur, Ginjee, Madurai, and Vellore. The Telugu region was similarly split among the Nayakas ruling at Kalahasti, Rachakonda and Gandikota.
After 1565, Gandikota became an independent principality ruled by the Pemmasani Nayakas. They lasted all of three generations.
The so-called Bahamani Sultans, with their newofund ascendancy after Vijayanagara was destroyed, embarked on expansionist sprees at various points. The Golconda Sultanate, arguably the most powerful, now set its rapacious sight on Gandikota. But it would take about a century before it pocketed this strategic stronghold and usurped its impregnable fortress.
But let’s first fast forward to the fall of this Sultanate in 1687. After this, Gandikota passed into the hands of Abdul Nabi Khan, the Nawab of Kadapa.
In 1780, Hyder Ali wrested it from Abdul Alim Khan, the last Nawab of Kadapa. An year after Tipu Sultan’s death, the East India Company pocketed Gandikota. It transformed the vast granary of the fort into a Travellers’ Bungalow and stationed a large ammunition depot in the premises. This is how the Cuddapah Gazetteer describes the Gandikota it saw in 1914.
Gandikota is a village of less than a thousand inhabitants, situated on a hill about five miles west of Jammalamadugu.
WHEN I VISITED GANDIKOTA a full century later, it resembled an abandoned theatre of desolation. Almost nothing exists of the fabled Vijayanagara-era citadel that had made this natural fortress even more unassailable. The Madhavaraya Swami temple is a sprawling ruin that sheds unseen tears. Its Moola-Vigraha was relocated long ago, and the temple precincts display clear signs of illegal digging for buried treasures.
The fate of the Raghunatha Swami Temple is even worse. It is in fact a miracle that the two temples have even survived. The whole complex is now a free-for-all realm. It is simultaneously a grazing ground, and a volleyball and cricket field. The porticos of both temples double up as venues for playing cards. During my visit, I witnessed three or four disparate groups of these gamblers, smoking bidis and playing andar-bahar (baita-lopala, in Telugu).
The adjoining village is decrepit and its dirty streets were doused with urine and littered with human and animal feces. Its inhabitants were curt to the point of being openly hostile even to polite inquiries by tourists. Its current population has remained frozen in time: a little over a thousand people.
It is almost impossible to imagine that this is the same site where a brilliant civilisation and culture had flourished continuously for centuries. It is even harder to believe that this Gandikota had been one of the sturdiest backbones supporting numerous pivotal military campaigns of Sri Krishnadevaraya. There is almost no physical clue that testifies to any of this past splendour. However, the two aforementioned temples of desolation are standing testimonies to the destruction of that splendour.
Then there is a third physical clue.
To be continued
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