A story of Ramappa Temple UNESCO nominated a world heritage site from Telangana, India. You may read part II of this article.

A brief resume of the history of the Kakatiya dynasty will serve to explain the real significance of the architecture and sculpture of these Ramappa Temple.

The Kakatiyas have a place of honor among the ruling families of medieval Dekkan “by virtue of their numerous conquests, their vast empire, their liberal patronage of arts and letters, and the great fervor with which they defended Hindu culture and Hindu institutions against the repeated onslaughts of Islam.”

The origin of the dynastic name Kakatiyas is quite obscure. According to some sources it is derived from a goddess by name, Kakati, (when the rulers worshipped), and according to others, from a town of that name. The earliest inscription of the Kakatiyas, so far discovered, is dated in Saka 1001 equal to A.D. 1079, although an inscription of the Western Calukyas of Vengi refers to a certain Kakartya Gunda, obviously one of their feudatories in the 10^th Century, who seems to have been an early ancestor of this family. Starting as feudatories of the Eastern Calukyas of Vengi they seem to have passed into a similar position under another dynasty, namely the Western Calukyas of Kalyani, whom they served loyally until circumstances favored their rise in the last quarter of the 11^th Century. The first three kings of this dynasty as given in the later inscriptions of the Kakatiyas are mere names; and the beginnings of the Kakatiya rule may be said to have commenced with Prola II who attacked his master Taila III of the Western Calukya dynasty of Kalyani