Guide🏛️ Heritage guides📍 United Warangal
Kakatiya Architecture: A Five-Minute Primer
Star-shaped platforms, black basalt pillars and bracket figures: how to recognise a Kakatiya temple.
What to look for
Kakatiya temples, built between the 12th and 14th centuries, share a recognisable vocabulary.
- Star-shaped platforms (upapitha) that lift the temple above the ground.
- Polished basalt pillars with lathe-turned and finely carved surfaces.
- Bracket figures (madanikas) of dancers and musicians, best seen at Ramappa.
- Trikutalayas, temples with three shrines, such as the Thousand Pillar Temple.
Where to see it
Start at the Thousand Pillar Temple in Hanumakonda, continue to Warangal Fort and the Kala Thoranam, and finish at Ramappa in Mulugu.