Warangal -A forgotten temple town. Review on Warangal

Our short, sweet but an eventful stay in Hyderabad took us to many places around Hyderabad on weekends. One such weekend we decided to drive down to Warangal. Warangal as a place really excited both of us, moreover the distance of just 150 km was another reason. My husband inquired few of the locals in his office. To our utter dismay, almost all of them told him not to visit Warangal, as it is a place famous for naxalites. Many said that there is nothing much to do in Warangal…and no one whom he inquired had visited Warangal. We were almost on the verge of dropping our plans… but as it is said, “ADVENTURE IS NOT OUTSIDE A MAN, ITS WITHIN” we decided…come what may…we will drive down. And lets see what happens? But there were no reviews so not many have visited this place?!… I must admit that though we were ready for this adventure…we were still expecting a town, which would be, sparsely populated with abandoned streets…!

We left early morning at about 6 am from Jubilee hills, crossed Secunderabad and take the Tarnaka main road, cross Uppal and soon u are on the highway towards Warangal.The road was smooth and the drive was carefree. We also covered the following places on the way. After covering a stretch of about 80 kms from our residence we reached the 12th century made Bhongir Fort. The fort is built on an isolated gigantic rock 500 ft above the ground. We did not climb the fort; instead we decided to have scrumptious breakfast. Its better to come in groups, as the place seems isolated! The small fort has nothing much to show except the panoramic view of the neighboring places. As told to us by the locals…. Guys following this Itinerary, please eat well…. There are no other good places to eat on the way till Warangal.

Our next destination was Yadagirigutta, home to a hill temple. After Bhongir watch out for the left turn you need to make under a huge sculpted archway. The drive is uphill and because it was a Saturday the place was crowded and we had difficulty in parking our vehicle.The sanctum of this hill temple is a natural cavern. Jwala Narasimha, Lakshmi Narsimha and Aandaalammaare worshipped here. There was a huge crowd and so we took the special darshan ticket, we could speed up the process other wise we would have to wait in the queue for another 3 hours. This is one of the very famous temples of Andhra Pradesh .Wow! What a sacred start to our weekend!

The next stop was Pembarti, which is about 100 km from Hyderabad. It is world famous for statues, and castings made of bronze. We just had a brief 15 min stop to have a Dekho. Very close to Pembarti, take a detour of about 8 km to reach Kolanupaka. The 2, 000-year-old Jain temple of Mahaveer is a famous place of worship for Jains in the country. The 5ft high image of Mahavira is entirely carved of Jade. The road to this temple is full of potholes, a stretch of shops on either side, a railway crossing and no traffic control. With no offence to the Jain community, I thought we could have skipped this detour.

Next stop was located at a distance of 10 kms from Jangoan. It was the Sri Ramchandra temple Jeedichal .We visited the temple only because Lord Ram had visited this place one the way to Lanka, and people believe he killed Maarich here. We had seen so many temples that we were having a feeling that we were on a pilgrimage, but this temples that we saw had familiar names from the Ramayana which we just read in books…so the thrill of seeing the places live took us to this temple!

Anyway we soon reached Warangal …*…and the Punnami hotel(run by the Andhra Pradesh tourism department where we had booked a room for ourselves) was bang opposite the REC Warangal, but outside the city center.(A big disadvantage). But booking at this place was the biggest mistake. Guys travelling to this region do not stay here… The rooms are basic with a window AC with little cooling and lots of noise. It has no running restaurant. …And no one comes here other than government officers. The staff is not helpful at all. The best place to stay and eat is Hotel Ashoka(Ph: 08712 –78491) and it is in the city centre. We had already paid in advance in Hyderabad and so were left with no choice. We had all our meals in Ashoka; our hotel was not ready to serve even the morning tea. Please learn from our mistake! … It is hot here, all round the year, so take my opinion and book an Ac room.

Warangal is a busy, crowded town like any other town can be. . There is no danger of any naxalites…not any that we could feel…after a good lunch we came back to our hotel and slept…. like a log. We were tired driving., And woke up only at about 4:00 pm and soon decided to explore the city. We had our own car… but decided to take an auto. We didn’t want to spend time figuring out the roads. And that was a really good idea……Our first stop was the Warangal Fort, nextwe went to the temple is dedicated toGoddess Bhadrakali,  There is a huge tank and a garden near the temple where u can spend some time. But there are too many mosquitoes to spoil the peace so carry a mosquito repellent cream .Very close is the Thousand Pillar Temple or the Rudreshwar Swamy Temple built in "Trikootalaya" style. This temple is dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Surya and is star shaped. The beautifully carved black Nandi, a monolith, has a very highly polished finish. Next morning we left early for TheRamalingeswara temple, popularly calledRamappa Temple at Palampet village is 70 kilometers from Warangal and about 220 kilometers from Hyderabad .The drive to Ramappa was another interesting one…. you ‘ll see no vehicle, no animal and no humans, just fields of sunflowers, till u reach the temple. Its like u own this road and can drive with eyes shut. The construction of the temple dates back to 1213 AD and originally there were said to be 3 structures but only one is presently intact. U can see the ruins of the other temples around. The Shivalaya stands majestically on a 6ft high star-shaped platform, with intricate carvings and sculptures.

1 km from the temple is the Ramappa Lake. Its water is spread over an area of more than 82 SqKms with lush greenery all around. It is an excellent place for lovers of picnic. This was the best part of the holiday. Actually I should not say this… but we saw so many temples on the way and in the city that it was kind of getting monotonous. We had a half an hour boat ride(speed boat) for Rs200, but it was worth it… one doesn’t really need to do anything or talk. You can sit here for long hours conversing with the silence…with the background music of the breeze, the birds and the trees interrupting…we stayed here for about 3 hours and finally left because we HAD to leave in order to reach home in time… It was a Sunday and our holiday was almost at its end…

We had a nice weekend break but it may not be a fun holiday. All you lovers of temple architecture in Hyderabad…Warangal is a place worth a visit once…it’s very safe …towards the end the thought of naxalites was so diluted that we just didn’t remember that there was a fear lurking over us at the beginning of our holiday…(I know there are too many temples)… But enjoy the break!