Most pilgrims come to Alampur for Sri Jogulamba Ammavaru, the only one of the eighteen Maha Shakti Peethas in Telangana. A short walk from her shrine, along the bank of the Tungabhadra, stands something rarer still: a cluster of nine stone temples raised by the Chalukyas of Badami some thirteen centuries ago. Together they are known as the Nava Brahma temples, and they remain one of the finest groups of early temple architecture in South India.
This article is about those temples – what history can tell us about them, what tradition says, and what to look for when you stand before them. For darshan information about the Goddess, please see our page on the Sri Jogulamba Temple, Alampur.
The dates above come from inscriptions and archaeological study. Tradition adds its own layers, which are worth knowing as tradition. The name of each temple ends in "Brahma", and local belief holds that Lord Brahma performed penance to Shiva at Alampur – which is why Shiva here is worshipped as Brahmeswara, and the main shrine as Bala Brahmeswara. Devotees also call Alampur the western gateway of Srisailam, and the Shakti Peetha tradition holds that the upper teeth of Goddess Sati fell here. None of these beliefs can be dated, but all of them have shaped how pilgrims have experienced Alampur for centuries.
The temples stand close together near the river bank. They differ greatly in size, decoration and state of preservation:
What makes Alampur special for students of temple architecture is that these southern temples were built in a northern idiom. Each of the main shrines has a rekha-nagara shikhara – a curved tower that rises in one smooth line, crowned by a ribbed, cushion-shaped stone called the amalaka and a kalasha finial. This is the form we associate with temples of northern and central India, and the Chalukyas used it here alongside the southern forms they built elsewhere in their kingdom.
The plan follows a pattern repeated across the group: a square sanctum (garbhagriha) holding the linga, a covered passage around it for pradakshina, and a pillared hall (mandapa) in front, entered through a porch. As you walk the site, look for:
You can read more about these styles on our pages on Chalukya temple architecture and Nagara architecture.
The Sangameswara temple originally stood at Kudavelli, near the sangam (confluence) of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra, about 20 km from Alampur. When the Srisailam dam was planned, its site lay in the area that would be flooded. Rather than lose it, the temple was carefully dismantled, its stones were numbered, and it was rebuilt near Alampur; the work was completed by 1990. Today it is a rare chance to see a Chalukya temple that has, quite literally, been saved from the water.
Beside the temples, the archaeological museum, established in 1952 and maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, holds sculptures and inscribed slabs gathered from Alampur and the surrounding region. They range from the Chalukya period to the Kakatiya and Vijayanagara eras. The Kakatiya ceiling panels, with Nataraja and a Nandi facing him, are among the highlights. A visit to the museum makes the temples easier to understand.
Alampur is also a natural stop on a pilgrimage to Srisailam, for which tradition honours it as the western gateway, and it fits well with a visit to the Shakti shrines of the Telugu lands during Dasara / Devi Navaratri.
Many old temples survive only as monuments, and many living temples have lost their oldest stones to renovation. At Alampur the two still stand side by side. The Bala Brahma temple, built more than a thousand years ago, is still a place of daily worship. The Goddess who was hidden within it for six centuries has returned to her own shrine. And the Sangameswara temple was carried away from the rising water stone by stone. To walk here is to see Telugu devotion and Chalukya craftsmanship continuing together.