Ramappa Temple
— the temple they named after the sculptor.
Not only on a wall.
“The temple at Palampet, north of Warangal, that they named after the sculptor instead of the god. Eight hundred years of monsoon have come and gone over the dancing figures on the outside walls, and the central shikhara is built of bricks light enough to float on water. The Kakatiyas finished it in 1213.
Ramappa Temple, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Ramappa Temple stands in the village of Palampet, in Mulugu district of Telangana, about seventy kilometres northeast of Warangal city. It was completed in 1213 CE under the Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva, commissioned by his general Recharla Rudra, and dedicated to Shiva as Ramalingeswara. UNESCO inscribed the temple on the World Heritage list in July 2021, the first such designation in Telangana, citing its sculptural program and structural ingenuity. The complex sits on a low platform beside Ramappa Lake, an artificial reservoir built in the same period under the Kakatiya hydraulic system.
The temple is the rare medieval Indian shrine signed by its maker, named for Ramappa, the sculptor whose work covers the outer walls and brackets. The basal mouldings and pillars are cut from a black-grained basalt so dense it rings when struck. The central shikhara above the sanctum is built from a porous brick, fired light enough to float on water, which dropped the weight on the load-bearing structure below. The madanika brackets at the eaves, slender female figures in dance poses, are the most photographed sculpture in the Deccan.
Palampet is reached by road from Warangal, about an hour and a half north on the state highway through Mulugu. There is no entry fee and the site is open from sunrise to sunset. Mornings before ten and afternoons after four are when the basalt basework runs warmest in tone; midday flattens the relief on the madanika brackets. A small Archaeological Survey of India office sits at the gate. Ramappa Lake is a five-minute walk east and worth circling on foot for the long view back to the shikhara.