Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/80

 character with an exordium of eight lines in old Telugu commemorating Mahamandaleshwara ("the great Lord") Rudradeva, son ot Prolaraja, Jagatikesarin Kakatiya, son and successor of Tribhuvana Betmaraja of Warangal. To this inscription, which is dated in Shaka 1084 (A. D. 1162-63) we are indebted for most of the knowledge of this dynasty which we at present possess. The temple also contains another inscription of much later date, in Telugu, which commemorates the heroism of a Muhammadan general named Shitab Khan. The existence in a Hindu temple of an inscription written in a Hindu language in praise of a Muhammadan general calls for some explanation, and we shall see later how it happened that this general was deemed by Hindus worthy of the honour accorded to him.

The next monument in chronological order is the inner or stone wall of Warangal. This, we have seen, was begun by Ganapati and completed by his widow Rudrammadevi, who also built the outer wall of the city. The circumference of the stone wall is 4 miles and 630 yards, and though it is evidently of Hindu workmanship, as appears from the architecture of the gateways, it must frequently have been repaired by Musalmans, for countless stones carved with figures of Hindu gods and their attendants which have been removed from the large temple which stood in the centre of the inner fort, have been built at random into the wall, their carved surfaces being sometimes turned inwards for the better concealment of objects of idolatrous worship. Of the large temple just mentioned nothing remains but four magnificent gates, even the enclosing wall having been removed, but from the large area which this wall enclosed and the exquisite carving of the stones which have been used for the repair of the fort wall there can be no doubt that the Warangal temple far excelled in magnificence the temple of the thousand pillars at Hanamkonda. The Muslims in their iconoclastic zeal unfortunately destroyed not only the temple, but also any inscription that it may have contained, thus rendering it impossible to say by whom it was built, but it may be conjectured that its builder was one of those who followed Prataparudradeva 1 on the throne, anxious to surpass his ancestor. The diameter of the area enclosed by the earthen wall built by Rudrammadevi is about two miles, and this space was occupied by the city of Warangal, while that within the stone wall seems to have contained,